Viewed in
2012
Formats
HDTV
Premise
John Wayne stars as a past-his-peak hired gun, who comes to the aid of down-and-out sheriff Robert Mitchum, as some baddies tighten their noose around their humble town.
Liked
Cast, interesting story set up.
Thoughts
Just an old school cowboy flick done right.
Similar to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, it was fun watching two superstars, John Wayne and Robert Mitchum, doing what they do best. I was very amused to see James Caan as the obligatory inexperienced kid of the posse, and Ed Asner as one of the bad guys. While I never heard of them before, Charlene Holt as Maude had spunk, and Michele Carey was easy on the eyes as Joey.
This film did an excellent job of setting up a bunch of subplots in an entertaining way, without making it slower than any other old-school western. I was caught up in each character's backstory and understood their previous brush-ups with each other. This led to a nice, complex finale; I knew where everyone was coming from, what was at stake, and everyone's motives.
Even though the basic plot was the usual motley crew taking protecting a little town from baddies, it rarely felt run-of-the-mill. Naturally the cast and story lines moved the film. But in addition, it was full of juicy old-school dialog, with fun lines of cowboy machismo, banter and zingers.
A funny thing happened while watching. Since Wayne and Mitchum were on the same side, the odds were against the antagonists from the outset. So the film tried to level the playing field by having the leads accumulate interesting injuries throughout. But for some reason, the more incapacitated they got, the more obvious it was that they were destined to prevail over their enemies and obstacles. This wasn't a flaw, just a testament to their badassery.
There wasn't much to dislike. Even the blatantly racially-insensitive "Chinaman" routine by Caan felt quaint and laughable. El Dorado was simply enjoyable thanks to the performances, pacing, writing, and dialog.
