The great Howard Hawks' final film,RIO LOBO,starring John Wayne, continues to divide critical opinion to this day;praised as an enjoyable,action filled coda to a distinguished directorial career,or derided a sluggish,trite and derivative rehash of far better previous works.
It is actually a mixture of both,though fortunately it's positive traits do seem to outnumber the negatives,and although one would've liked to have seen Hawks bow out of film-making on a much more confident register,it is in no way an embarrassment and provides decent entertainment.
As has been already noted,the plot is homogeneous with Hawks' superior previous westerns RIO BRAVO and EL DORADO,although not as overwhelmingly so;the film's opening half hour features incidents from the latter days of the American civil war,which admittedly has some good action but doesn't seem entirely relevant.Thereafter,it follows the thread of the above mentioned,though with not as much detail or characterisation.RIO LOBO does get bogged down with some dull expository dialogue,and some weak,ineffectual performances from younger members of the cast (Jorge Rivero,Jennifer O'Neill,Chris Mitchum).However,despite his noticeable paunch,Wayne is still a credible action lead though he looks awkward in some of the action scenes.Other members of the support cast,such as David Huddleston,Bill Williams,Jim Davis and Hank Worden also give much needed reliability,and Jack Elam gives the film's best performance,reprising the Walter Brennan role as a rascally,roistering,half-crazy rancher.What ultimately saves the film is it's sense of humour.Wayne,Elam and Huddleston handle the comic relief with aplomb,and Yakima Canutt handles the action,some of it surprisingly vicious,fairly efficiently.The villains involved (Victor French,Mike Henry) are adequate but are given rather superficial characterisations,and nominal female lead Ms O'Neill virtually vanishes in the last few reels,perhaps because of her limited thespian abilities.After being facially scarred by the sadistic Henry,Sherry Lansing turns up for revenge in the last moments;her average but by no means poor performance was her last in films before she famously became a movie studio boss.
RIO LOBO is no classic,and pales beside EL DORADO and particularly RIO BRAVO,but despite the advancing ages of the principals (Hawks and Wayne),the two icons can still hold the attention even when they are not at their creative apex.
RATING:6 and a half out of 10.
It is actually a mixture of both,though fortunately it's positive traits do seem to outnumber the negatives,and although one would've liked to have seen Hawks bow out of film-making on a much more confident register,it is in no way an embarrassment and provides decent entertainment.
As has been already noted,the plot is homogeneous with Hawks' superior previous westerns RIO BRAVO and EL DORADO,although not as overwhelmingly so;the film's opening half hour features incidents from the latter days of the American civil war,which admittedly has some good action but doesn't seem entirely relevant.Thereafter,it follows the thread of the above mentioned,though with not as much detail or characterisation.RIO LOBO does get bogged down with some dull expository dialogue,and some weak,ineffectual performances from younger members of the cast (Jorge Rivero,Jennifer O'Neill,Chris Mitchum).However,despite his noticeable paunch,Wayne is still a credible action lead though he looks awkward in some of the action scenes.Other members of the support cast,such as David Huddleston,Bill Williams,Jim Davis and Hank Worden also give much needed reliability,and Jack Elam gives the film's best performance,reprising the Walter Brennan role as a rascally,roistering,half-crazy rancher.What ultimately saves the film is it's sense of humour.Wayne,Elam and Huddleston handle the comic relief with aplomb,and Yakima Canutt handles the action,some of it surprisingly vicious,fairly efficiently.The villains involved (Victor French,Mike Henry) are adequate but are given rather superficial characterisations,and nominal female lead Ms O'Neill virtually vanishes in the last few reels,perhaps because of her limited thespian abilities.After being facially scarred by the sadistic Henry,Sherry Lansing turns up for revenge in the last moments;her average but by no means poor performance was her last in films before she famously became a movie studio boss.
RIO LOBO is no classic,and pales beside EL DORADO and particularly RIO BRAVO,but despite the advancing ages of the principals (Hawks and Wayne),the two icons can still hold the attention even when they are not at their creative apex.
RATING:6 and a half out of 10.