So I’m flipping through channels last night and come to AMC. A western scene is being played out in a bar, wherein a scruffy guy in a dirty, torn long-handle shirt and cowboy hat is being mocked and laughed at while he buys some whiskey; and I think “Oh, it’s Dean Martin in Rio Bravo, doing his town drunk schtick”.
But something isn’t quite right with Martin’s face, and I realize suddenly that it’s Robert Mitchum. Well, many westerns used this plot device, so no biggy. But then he staggers outside and over to the sheriff’s office, where stands…John Wayne. They have a little conversation and then there’s some shooting and they run outside with a third party in a fancy getup (James Caan) who Wayne addresses as…“Mississippi”. “WTF?”, I’m thinking, “Have I gone senile?” Then they hook up with a lovable geezer-type and go gunning for the bad guys.
I had to wait for a commercial break to find out that this was a film called “El Dorado”. It was nearly identical to “Rio Bravo”, except for some minor variations.
Rio Bravo: Directed by Howard Hawkes in 1959, John Wayne as the sheriff, Dean Martin as “Dude” Borachon, a broken down gunfighter and town drunk who is redeemed, Ricky Nelson as “Colorado” Ryan.
El Dorado: Directed by Howard Hawkes in 1967, John Wayne as a fast gun, Robert Mitchum as a broken down sheriff and town drunk who is redeemed, James Caan as “Mississippi” Bourdillion.
I guess being bereft of new ideas is not a modern notion.
Actually, Hawks told this story not once, not twice, but three times!
Rio Bravo (1959), with Wayne as Hero, Dean Martin as Drunk Sherrif, Ricky Nelson as Cute Guy with Gun, and Walter Brennan as Old Coot.
El Dorado (1967) with Wayne as Hero, Robert Mitchum as Drunk Sherrif, James Caan as Cute Guy with Gun, and Arthur Hunnicutt as Old Coot.
Rio Lobo (1970) with Wayne as Hero, Jorge Rivero as Drunk Sherrif, Jennifer O’Neil as Cute Gal with Gun, and Jack Elam as Old Coot (and George Plimpton as 4th Gunman, according to the IMDB).
Each version is at least watchable, although the last one is distinctly the least of them…
Rio Bravo is, IMHO, just about the greatest Western ever made. It’s certainly my number one favorite, although The Naked Spur and Track of the Cat have been known to give it a run for the money at list-making time.
I love that it’s a chick flick for straight guys: it’s about friendship and emotional support–a John Wayne western about friendship and emotional support!
I hadn’t seen Eldorado until recently, but when I realized Hawks was examining similar themes, with a slightly shuffled cast, I was intrigued. I came away thinking of Eldorado as a great film, and of the pair of them as a great, great double feature.
Hawks explores the same themes, only he moves the characters and motivations around a bit to explore them from a different perspective. In Bravo, the sheriff is an upstanding, noble man who needs help fighting bad guys, but doesn’t want to endanger anyone else (contrasted with Gary Cooper’s namby-pamby sheriff in the grossly overrated High Noon, with Grace Kelly as the deus ex machina). Dean Martin is his friend, who’s fallen on bad times and a whiskey bottle or two. The film chronicles Martin’s redemption, motivated by his desire to help his friend. Not your standard western fare: it’s about the people, not about the guns and horses.
In Eldorado, it’s the sheriff–the one sworn to uphold the law–who’s fallen on a bottle. And the noble man this time is an outlaw gunman. So the dynamic of the friendship is altered somewhat, but like Bravo, it’s a story of redemption for the sake of friendship.
I haven’t seen Rio Lobo yet, but it’s higher on my list, now that I know it forms a thematic trilogy with these other great films.
There’s actually a whole scene in Get Shorty where John Travolta and Gene Hackman quibble over the details of who played whom in the two films (Rio and Dorado), which I didn’t understand until I read this thread!
I was thinking he was just comparing two fairly similar westerns with John Wayne (I think at one point he actually says “…and John Wayne played John Wayne.”). Now I know…The Straight Dope.
I saw your show last night too, and then sat through Hondo.
How about when John Wayne suspected Christopher George’s men were waiting outside the bar to ambush him (and Mississippi) and then thanked him for calling them off. Since when do you thank someone when you catch them trying to kill you?
Nah, the whole thing reeks of “The Three Amigos Take Manhattan”, starring John Wayne as the straight-shooting stock broker, Ted Kennedy as the drunken senator who finds redemption in the arms of a mermaid, and Justin Timberlake as “Guam” Hafadai, young rebel from the islands who totes a blazing PDA. The part of “geezer” is played by Ronald Reagan, who looks increasingly lucid when compared to our present leader.