Rio Lobo

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Rio Lobo

Directed by	Howard Hawks
Produced by	Howard Hawks
Written by	Leigh Brackett Burton Wohl
Starring	John Wayne, Jorge Rivero, Jennifer O'Neill, Jack Elam, Christopher Mitchum
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography	William H. Clothier
Distributed by	National General Pictures
Release date(s)	December 17, 1970 (U.S. release)
Running time	114 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Rio Lobo is a 1970 western movie starring John Wayne. The film was directed by Howard Hawks from a script written by Leigh Brackett. The film was shot in Technicolor and lasted for 114 minutes. The musical score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith.

The film opens during the American Civil War, with a hijacking of a Union army payroll train by a Confederate raiding party. The hijacking is lead by Capt. Pierre Cordona (Rivero) and Sgt. Tuscarora Phillips (Mitchum).

In the subsequent fighting, they capture and are in return captured by Col. Cord McNally (Wayne), who loses a close friend in the action. McNally realizes that a traitor must be selling information to the South, in order for the hijackings to be successful. McNally questions the pair, but they give him no information and are imprisoned.

When the War ends McNally visits them and asks them to tell him from whom they got their information. Unfortunately they don't know the traitors' identities, having only seen them from a distance. McNally then tells Cordona and Tuscarora that if they should ever come across these men again, to contact him through a friend of his, Pat Cronin (Williams), who is the sheriff of Blackthorne in Texas. Tuscarora is on his way to Rio Lobo, Texas where he grew up.

Later McNally is contacted by Cronin on instructions from Cordona. When he arrives in Blackthorne, however, Cordona is indisposed. Whilst waiting for his recovery, a woman, Shasta Delaney (O’Neill) arrives, wishing to report a murder that took place in Rio Lobo. Cronin claims that there's nothing he can do, because Rio Lobo is outside his jurisdiction. Later a posse from Rio Lobo arrives and wants to take Delaney away. She claims, however, that the leader is the murderer about whom she has been talking.

Later a gunfight ensues with Cordona joining in. Cordona says that the leader of the posse, is one of the men for whom McNally is looking. He goes on to tell McNally that Tuscarora had contacted him and had told him that he saw one of the men, for whom McNally is looking in Rio Lobo. He also reports that there is trouble in Rio Lobo and that Tuscarora needs help. So McNally, Cordona, and Delaney go to Rio Lobo, where they discover all sorts of graft and corruption going on. In true western fashion and with an exciting climax they put the situation to rights.

1 Critical reaction
2 Trivia
3 Cast
4 External links

[edit] Critical reaction

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On its release, the film received mixed reviews.^{[citation needed]} Wayne was considered too old for the role he played.^{[citation needed]} Comments were also made that no other big star was cast as a counter weight to Wayne.^{[citation needed]}

These criticisms may well have been influenced by the prevailing mood of the time. The Vietnam War was at its height and Hollywood was using more violent and realistic westerns such as Little Big Man and Soldier Blue to promote its anti-war message. Rio Lobo was a western made in the classical style and did not seem to fit the times.

Over the years, however, views have changed and now Rio Lobo has been seen as the highly creditable product of a master film maker.^{[citation needed]} It was to be Hawks' last film and is considered to be a second, if looser, remake of Wayne’s classic 1959 film, Rio Bravo, also starring Dean Martin (the first remake was El Dorado (film), with Wayne and Robert Mitchum.

[edit] Trivia

Writer and reporter George Plimpton was cast in a minor role in this film (4th Gunman). Footage of him getting ready and filming his part was used in a documentary-like television special "Plimpton! Shoot-Out at Rio Lobo."