El Dorado

I love this movie - I saw it for the first time with a friend recently and promptly went looking for my own copy. It might be my favorite John Wayne movie. I also enjoyed the rest of the cast - some big names are in there. Its a fun movie, and ticks every box on my what I want to see in a western list. This DVD edition was great - no problems at all.

This is the greatest film ever made.

Good movie

It a great show all star cast what more can i say

I know that El Dorado is basically a remake by Howard Hawks of Rio Lobo, which was made a whole seven years earlier, but I like this 1966 film better. It is not just that you have both John Wayne and Robert Mitchum fitting comfortably into their roles but you also have young James Caan and old Arthur Hunnicutt in colorful supporting roles. There is a sense of fun to the proceedings even as everybody takes them seriously. Wayne is Cole Thornton, an ace gunslinger who turns down an offer to join up with hired gun Nelse McLeod (Christopher George) at the behest of Bart Jason (Edward Asner), the big shot of the town of El Dorado, because it means going up against old pal J. P. Harrah (Mitchum). But it turns out that Harrah has been hitting the bottle hard, so Thorton decides to help his old friend. Unfortunately he is wounded by a bullet that is lodged near his spine and causes paralysis from time to time. Also on their side are old Bull Harris (Hunnicutt) and the young Alan Bourdillion Traherne (Caan), who is called Mississippi by his friends for obvious reasons. Maudie (Charlene Holt) is the woman who would like to see Colt and J.P. live to die of old age and Joey (Michele Carey) is the young hothead who shots Thornton and catches the eye of Mississippi. This is an interesting film from Waynes perspective because the Duke keeps letting his co-stars have most of the big moments. True, the script dictates that his character has to allow Mitchums drunken sherrif to redeem himself, but Wayne gets credit for being the rock on which this film is made. Ultimately, El Dorado is driven more by the engaging characters than the action of suspense. It is also one of the last Westerns to have a rowdy theme song, with George Alexander, backed by the Mellomen, singing the title written by Nelson Riddle and George Alexander. In addition to Hawks and Wayne being around for both films, Leigh Brackett did the screenplay for both as well and I think a large measure of the success of El Dorado goes to her for creating these characters. She obviously gets the credit for the dialogue, which really does not provide the sort of one-liners that you want to quote ad infinitum, but which still provides a lot of humorous little moments driven more by the characters than the words. The result is not a classic Western in the John Ford mold, but still it is a solid one which makes it well above average all things considered.

Works great. Great movie

I can’t show you a picture because this was a gift for somebody but they absolutely loved it!

If you like old westerns you’re going to be happy. I’m from that generation and as it may be sort of campy it’s a good watch. The good guy’s win.

John Wayne, I cringe when I hear someone say Who`s John Wayne? Its hard to get my mind around, he died when I was 23 but I have been watching him for another 40, there will never be a better representative for our country and just to be proud to be an American.........in closing I thought it was worth sharing the fact that in 6 yrs from making this movie Jimmy Caan will be a household name........I know, I know....Who`s Jimmy Caan?

Movie critic Roger Ebert had nothing but good things to say about this movie. El Dorado is a tightly directed, humorous, altogether successful Western, turned out almost effortlessly, it would seem, by three old pros: John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and director Howard Hawks. And I have to agree as this timeless western classic never seems to grow old and just like an old friend one never grows tired of visiting. The blu-ray transfer is beautiful and a large part of it is lovingly filmed at night by cinemaphotographer Harold Rosson who would take as long as an hour and a half to set up the lighting in the night scenes because he wanted those scenes to emulate the paintings of classic western artists. Incidentally, the gentleman who played the gunsmith Swede Larson ( Olaf Wieghorst) was his first attempt at acting. His profession was a western painter and he did the paintings for the background of the opening credits of this film. The score for the film was by Nelson Riddle who is famous for his jazzy themes ( the theme music to the original Emergency TV show to name just one) and it shows in a couple of the scenes such as when they are hunting down the three baddies who are holed up in a church. There are three documentaries that accompany the disc. One on director Howard Hawks; Ride Boldly Ride: The Journey To Eldorado. Another on the artist Olaf Wieghorst; The Artist and the American West. And a third Behind the Gates: A.C. Lyles Remembers John Wayne. There are two commentaries. One by Director Peter Bogdanovich, and the other commentary by film Historian and Critic Richard Schickel, Actor Ed Asner and Author Todd McCarthy. Although I did give this movie a much deserved 5-star rating the disc has a problem like Ive never run into before. Neither the theatrical preview nor the third documentary (Behind the Gates) are watchable as the picture freezes up on black then white noise picture then a frozen scene and keeps going like that. Weird! One behind the scenes tidbit that Peter Bogdanovich told on John Wayne was that he always stuck around between shoots. He was always doing something, as Mr. Bogdanovich described Duke Wayne as very fidgety between shots unlike the other actors like Robert Mitchum who always went to his trailer between shots. Duke Wayne and James Caan would often play chess as well between scenes just like he did with Dean Martin on the set of Rio Bravo. In spite of the discs shortcomings the movie does play just fine and the 1080p sparkles and it is nearly like watching the movie for the first time all over again what with eye-popping details in costume embroidery and set decoration that is all the more evident since this is a full-screen 16 x 9 transfer in gorgeous Technicolor.