Dust, tumble weeds, gun slingers, horses, Native American renegades, and the almost unending blue skies of the American West. This is what we think and see when we look at the western movie genre of the American silver screen. Hollywood created a distorted look of the American west. One in which there was a clear line between good and bad, and right and wrong. There were many who brought these tales and scenes to movie goers around the world. With such big names as John Ford, John Sturges, Sam Peckinpah, Clint Eastwood, and even the great Sergio Leone. There is a little less know director by the name of Howard Hawks who made his own contributions to the western genre. While only producing and directing seven westerns in a long and distinguished movie career; there are three that are what many say are “The same Movie”! These three movies all starring the great John Wayne as the lead role are “Rio Bravo”, “El Dorado”, and “Rio Lobo”. While I believe they do have great similarities, especially between “Rio Bravo” and “El Dorado”, there are undeniable differences. This is most noticeable with the final film “Rio Lobo” in which there are only minor similarities to the other two films.
Howard Hawks started his movie career in 1916 and helped bring some of the greatest movies to the silver screen. Writing, Directing, and Producing so many big-name movies it is hard to list them all. Some of these movies are “Scarface (1932)”, “Sergeant York (1941)”, and “The Big Sleep (1946)”. However, among all these movies in his career catalog there are three that seem to be by many accounts a progressive reproduction. All three just happen to be Westerns.
The first of these Westerns is “Rio Bravo (1959)”. Playing the Lead role is John Wayne, while his supporting cast includes Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Walter Brennan, and the lovely Angie Dickinson. The film opens with a drunkard for a sheriff’s deputy by the name of “Dude” (Dean Martin) who is trolling around a saloon looking for someone to give him a free drink. After being humiliated in the saloon an innocent man is shot. Soon after Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) arrests the murder and takes him to jail and awaits the U.S. Marshall’s arrival. The murder Joe Burdette (Claude Akins) has a faithful wealthy land-owning brother named Nathan Burdette (John Russell) who wants his brother released from jail badly. So badly that he is paying gunmen to start trouble for the town of Rio Bravo! To keep all this trouble at bay until the Marshall gets to town Joe Burdette is put under the watchful eye of an aged trigger-happy Sheriff’s Deputy named Stumpy (Walter Brennan). In-between all this mess Sheriff Chance meets a traveling gambling woman by the name of Feathers (Angie Dickinson) whom he develops a love interest with. A friend of Sheriff Chance, Pat Wheeler (Ward Bond) offers up the help of one of his men Colorado Ryan (Ricky Nelson). Colorado is a young upstart who is a fast and deadly draw with his two pistols. At first not wanting to get involved in the predicament the town and Sheriff are in, Colorado finally comes around to helping. All the while Dude forces himself to sober up and quit drinking to great difficulty but eventual success. With great odds to overcome the rag-tag crew of lawmen culminate the climax of the movie by getting the brothers and their crew to surrender, saving the town and their lives in the process.
Following up with another Western in 1967, Hawks produced and directed “El Dorado”. Another John Wayne lead role, but the supporting cast is just as notable. Supporting Wayne are Robert Mitchum, James Caan, Arthur Hunnicutt, and the beautiful Charlene Holt. Unlike “Rio Bravo” this film opens with Sheriff J.P. Harrah (Robert Mitchum) being a clean cut, sober, and capable lawman. He encounters an old friend Cole Thornton (John Wayne) who is on his way to take a job as a hired gun hand from wealthy rancher Bart Jason (Edward Asner). Thornton learns from Sheriff Harrah that Jason is using devious ways to push a fellow rancher named Kevin McDonald (R.G. Armstrong) to relinquish his water rights so that Jason can expand his operation. After turning down Jason’s job offer, Thornton is on his way back to town when he is caught up in a tragic predicament which leaves him with a wound that stays with him throughout the film. After leaving the recuperating care of his love interest Maudie (Charlene Holt), Thornton heads on. Seeking rest in a town, Thornton encounters a young upstart named Mississippi (James Caan) whom Thornton reluctantly begins to mentor. After the two return to El Dorado, Thornton finds Sheriff Harrah a drunken mess due to a broken heart. When a young man is shot, the drunken Sheriff and his deputies must arrest the man that did it. Eventually arresting Jason, he is taken to the jail and put under guard by an old trigger-happy Sheriff’s Deputy named Bull (Arthur Hunnicutt). With Jason’s hired men scheming to get him out, the motley crew hold up in the jail till the U.S. Marshall arrives. Thornton and Harrah wind up with wounds that seem to render them useless. Through creative tactics the Sheriff and his Deputies win a climatic gun fight which ends the turmoil with the bad guys being killed.
Completing his career and his Western genre catalog Hawks ended it with “Rio Lobo” in 1970. Again, without fail John Wayne is the lead character with a much less stellar supporting cast. With such B-name actors as Jorge Rivero, Jack Elam, Christopher Mitchum, and Jennifer O’Neill, it was hard to sell this film to audiences. In the beginning, the American Civil War is still raging on; Union Calvary Col. Cord McNally (John Wayne) is trying to stop and capture a renegade Confederate Army unit who are stealing Union Army gold shipments. The Confederate unit is lead by a young Capt. Pierre Cordona (Jorge Rivero) and his trusty Sargent, Tuscarora Phillips (Christopher Mitchum). After the war has ended and Capt. Cordona and Sgt. Phillips are released from a military prison camp they divulge what little description of the men who sold them the shipment information to Col. McNally. Now hell bent on bringing these treasonous men to justice Col. McNally heads to Texas. There he has a run in with a hysterical woman named Shasta Delaney (Jennifer O’Neill) who is running from the town of Rio Lobo after being wrongfully persecuted. Saving Shasta from corrupt lawmen, Col. McNally discovers one of the deputies is one of the treasonous men he is looking for. Teaming up with Capt. Cordona, Col. McNally heads out and discovers a corrupt Sheriff (Mike Henry) and a mysterious wealthy land-owner named Ketcham (Victor French) who are wrongfully incarcerating Tuscarora Phillips for leverage to gain his father’s land. Adding an aging trigger happy Old Man Phillips (Jack Elam) to the mix, McNally and Cordona discover that Ketcham is the man who sold the Union secrets and was also a former Union solider. In a final gunfight scene, the towns people out to seek justice, help McNally kill the bad guys and return stolen land back to its’ rightful owners.
Comparing three movies proved to be a challenge. With noticeable similarities and undeniable differences, it was an integration of basic elements only. Similar backstories, like that of the backgrounds of the leading women of the films. They were all once married to gamblers who lost their lives to cheating at cards along with being terrible husbands. The women were then forced into desperation until an opportunity to reestablish their own independent lives arouse. A drunk lawman (only in Rio Bravo and El Dorado) who is trying to drown a broken heart with whiskey, sobers up to save his reputation and the lives of his friends. The young upstart who needs a bit of mentoring. Glaring eyed and slaked jawed crazy old man who remains a faithful sidekick no matter the challenges. An undeniably strong leading man who is a renowned gunfighter and always walks on the side of good of righteousness. Of course, the town that needs saving from tragic circumstances of a greedy villain. There are minor similarities and little innuendos that jump from film to film and not necessarily integrate in succession of one another. Upon viewing the films, one will see the visible differences that do not exactly transition from film to film. However, with the basic elements present this is what makes most say, “these are the same movie”. But an urging to watch the films may show why one could say they are different. With a tossing in of some of these elements in each movie it could be shown that it may have just been laziness on the part of the writer to come up with original elements of their own.
Howard Hawks was a notable producer and director who made classic cinema come alive in such a way that most of his films are still renowned today. With discussions and analysis of his work at regularity, it proves he was one of the greatest directors no one knew. Creating films of many genres, it was the westerns that could capture the heart of people everywhere. With vibrant scenes and tough guy personas, Hawks had the magic to bring these three movies to the forefront of westerns in a catalog of many great films in a specific genre. Maybe not the greatest westerns ever made, but you cannot pass them if you are a true fan of western films. Especially if you are a John Wayne fan, these are not films you can skip. They may be at the tail end of Wayne’s career but still embody his western persona. Being guided by Howard Hawks hand, these are films worth at least one look to say the least.
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