Rating: 
Summary: A spectacular western from the masters--Hawks and the Duke
Review: Director Howard Hawks turned out some great westerns, but this has to be the best (in my opinion). Teaming up once again with John Wayne, El Dorado is a great film with an engaging storyline and a cast of characters that you can't help but like. First of all, there's the Duke, playing Cole Thornton, a gunslinger for hire who finds himself mixed up in a water dispute. Also starring is Robert Mitchum, a drunken sheriff who's an excellent gunslinger--when he's sober enough to hold a gun. But the one who steals the show, in my opinion, is James Caan, aka Mississippi.Caan plays a young man who can't shoot straight but is great with a knife. To compensate for this, Cole buys him a sawed-off shotgun, and hilarity ensues every time he pulls the trigger-- everything from shooting the wrong guy to wounding his friends to missing his target altogether. In fact, this is one of the great things about this movie--it's funny. This is a great Western, one of the best in my opinion. The story is intriguing, and the characters have a great chemistry. If you want an good old-fashioned bang-em-up Western which is good for a lot of laughs as well, try El Dorado. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: "Mitch" Is The Real Star of "El Dorado"!
Review: This is one of my favorite Robert Mitchum films ever. Looks like no one else guessed who Bart Jason was - an early film role played with the usual gruffiness by Ed Asner, who later went on to fame in the Mary Tyler Moore show and then in his own show as Lou Grant. Right from the start of the film, when Charlene Holt, who plays Maudie, reminisces with Mitch about John Wayne (Cole), you see Mitch's head in side profile, like an Easter Island statue or Mount Rushmore. James Caan turned in a fine performance as Mississippi, gunslinger, medicine man, and Romeo (love interest Michele Carey). Pre-"The Immortal" Christopher George was also excellent as Asner's hired hand, the "professional courtesy" gun duel btw. Wayne and George at the end of the film was nothing short of excellent. Overall, this is one of the few Westerns I really like. When I bought this video at the post exchange in Heidelberg, the cashier asked me if I was a John Wayne fan. No, I was a Mitchum fan, I said. Didn't answer me. Oh well. As my Amazon moniker is hipster, it is also fitting to Robert Mitchum, who was the penultimate Hollywood hipster. Curiously enough, Mitch was here in Heidelberg a few years back shooting a movie, and I missed seeing him. Knowing that he was here makes this review all the more personal.
Rating: 
Summary: ONE OF WAYNE'S BETTER 1960'S WESTERNS
Review: El Dorado is basically a remake of 1959's Rio Bravo with Robert Mitchum playing the Dean Martin Role and James Caan playing the Rick Nelson role as a young gunman. The Trio are joined by Mitchums deputy "Bull" in trying to protect a family of rancers from an evil land baron trying to run them off their land. It's classic Wayne with lots of humor mixed in with the action. Wayne and Mitchum were very good together and Mitchums scenes playing the drunken sheriff are very funny. Ed Asner plays the evil land baron with Christopher George as his hired gunslinger who wants to challenge the older Wayne to see who is faster on the draw. Not as good as Rio Bravo but better than Rio Lobo which was basically yet another re-make of the same plot.
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite John Wayne Film
Review: It may not have the stature--critically or in the popular mind--of the films the Duke made in his prime, like "Stagecoach," "The Searchers," or the Cavalry Trilogy, but this boisterous Western clearly shows why Wayne got away for so long with "playing himself." He and co-star Mitchum bring to the screen, if not the limber bodies of their youth, a presence and experience (between them they had more than six decades in film by the time they made this one) that we seldom see in today's stars. Very sensibly, they both play men of experience who are now slowing down a bit and beginning to think about the future they may not have anticipated having: Mitchum, as Sheriff JP Harrah, has settled down, and Wayne, as Cole Thornton, is picking his fights with care. Familiar faces abound in the supporting cast, and there's a nice mix of action, humor, and outstanding characters (Christopher George as villain Nelse McCloud is one of the samples of that species you "love to hate"). There's even a hint of romance, not only in the quirky relationship between James Caan as "Mississippi" Trehearne and Michele Carey as Joey MacDonald, but in the long history between Cole and saloonowner Maudie (Charlene Holt). I couldn't begin to guess how many times I've rewatched this movie, and I still enjoy it just as much.
Rating:
Summary: Always Appealing
Review: I have probably seen this movie about 30 - 40 times, and never tire of it. A great cast, including a rather tender aged James Caan work a virtually mirrored script to Rio Bravo, but somehow make it different. Howard Hawks was so impressed with James Caan who played his "Mississippi" role with absolute solemnity, saying that it made his character even more believable during the films many humorous moments. Robert Mitchum is superb, as are Christopher George and Ed Asner, but make no mistake this film belongs to John Wayne. His trademark laconic tough guy style oozes throughout the picture, and as predictable as the movie is, it is an absolute joy to watch over and over again. A worthy addition to any home collection, if you've seen - see it again, if not you're either too young, or you've never watched much TV!. GREAT!!
Rating:
Summary: The best Wane flick
Review: This is my all-time favorite John Wayne flick. Most lists I see list "The Searchers" as the best, but I disagree. This is essentially a reworking of "Rio Bravo", but you get better co-stars here with Robert Mitchum and James Caan. Plus you don't have the unrealistic sing-a-long that occurs in the middle of "Bravo" In this movie Cole Thornton (Wayne) is a hired gunman in town to help out in a range war. Before he goes out to meet his new boss, Bart Jason (Ed Asner), he meets his old buddy J. P. Harrah (Mitchum). Harrah convinces Thornton that he'd be fighting for the wrong side. Later, Thornton is in another town, where he meets up with Nils McCloud (Christopher George), who is off to El Dorado to take the job Thornton turned down. McCloud tells Thornton that Harrah is now a hopeless drunk, so of course, this being a Wayne flick, Thornton has to ride to the rescue. Along the way he is accompanied by Alan Bedillian Traherne ("Yeah, that's why most people call me 'Mississippi'.") and Bull (Arthur Hunnicut). The end is a shootout worthy of the name.
Rating:
Summary: A GREAT 1960'S WAYNE WESTERN!
Review: Paired with Robert Mitchum, El Dorado is essentially a remake of Howard Hawks' earlier Rio Bravo (with writer Leigh Brackett updating her own script). John Wayne, instead of sheriff, plays an aging gunman, who is getting too wise for the game. Robert Mitchum, as the drunken sheriff, takes over the role of the drunken Dean Martin, and James Caan is the fresh faced greenhorn last played by Ricky Nelson (thankfully, Caan doesn't sing). Hawks and Brackett take their time in setting up this story, giving Wayne and Mitchum plenty of backstory, before the stand-off in the town of El Dorado. In this movie, Thornton is offered a job by land grabber Ed Asner to take out the Sheriff of El Dorado and run the rightful landowners off their land. Thornton refuses and instead goes to El dorado to help his friend against the other gunmen Asner hired led by Nelse McCloud played by regualr Wayne Co-Star Christopher George. Caan plays Mississippi a young man who cannot use a gun and is given a sawed off shotgun as his weapon. Arthur Hunnicut plays Bull and essentially takes over the role that Walter Brennan played in "Rio Bravo". The movie has a great deal of action as well as humor as Wayne and Caan and Hunnicutt attempt to sober up the sheriff. Wayne and Mitchum had great chemistry together and even though the Duke was aging, still commands the screen in this movie. Lots of fun.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Entertaining Western
Review: EL DORADO has a lot of good elements such as an interesting story, gripping suspense and above all excellent acting. Besides John Wayne in the role of a professional gunfighter and Robert Mitchum as the sheriff of El Dorado, the film has a strong supporting cast which includes James Caan, Charlene Holt, Paul Fix, Arthur Hunnicutt, Michele Carey and John Mitchum. The latter is the younger brother of Robert Mitchum. In this movie John plays a bartender. He has more than 200 movie and TV appearances to his credit as well as stints as a singer and song writer. Robert Mitchum can play a drunk trying to cope with a hongover as well as anybody in movies. Howard Hawkes is best remembered for his direction of SERGEANT YORK. I always thought that EL DORADO deserved a high rating even though it failed to receive any Oscar nominations in 1967. The Academy award competition in that year was dominated by BONNIE AND CLYDE, THE GRADUATE and IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT.
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite John Wayne Film
Review: It may not have the stature--critically or in the popular mind--of the films the Duke made in his prime, like "Stagecoach," "The Searchers," or the Cavalry Trilogy, but this boisterous Western clearly shows why Wayne got away for so long with "playing himself." He and co-star Mitchum bring to the screen, if not the limber bodies of their youth, a presence and experience (between them they had more than six decades in film by the time they made this one) that we seldom see in today's stars. Very sensibly, they both play men of experience who are now slowing down a bit and beginning to think about the future they may not have anticipated having: Mitchum, as Sheriff JP Harrah, has settled down, and Wayne, as Cole Thornton, is picking his fights with care. Familiar faces abound in the supporting cast, and there's a nice mix of action, humor, and outstanding characters (Christopher George as villain Nelse McCloud is one of the samples of that species you "love to hate"). There's even a hint of romance, not only in the quirky relationship between James Caan as "Mississippi" Trehearne and Michele Carey as Joey MacDonald, but in the long history between Cole and saloonowner Maudie (Charlene Holt). I couldn't begin to guess how many times I've rewatched this movie, and I still enjoy it just as much.
Rating:
Summary: Decent remake
Review: I got the feeling that Hawks was sitting around one day wondering what movie to make next when he happened upon the Rio Bravo script and, as a joke, suggested making it all over again. The movie execs, sniffing money, said why not and so El Dorado was born. Wayne reprises the Wayne part, Mitchum the Martin, Caan the Nelson and Hunnicutt the Brennan. Wayne is noticeably older and paunchier and doesn't quite have the chemistry with Mitchum that he had with Martin but it's not a bad effort. Hunnicutt's deadpan delivery is almost as amusing as Brennan's moaning and shrieking. James Caan is a better actor than Nelson if perhaps not so easy on the eye. Buy both movies, watch both and love both.
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