Movie Reviews

Rio Lobo Movie Review

Read a book review online (click here to search reviews)

Books

Movies

Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Comedy & Personal Dramas

Action Dramas

Actors: John Wayne, Jennifer O'Neill, Jorge Rivero, Jack Elam

Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Rio Lobo

RIO LOBO is a movie produced and directed by Howard Hawks in 1970.

During the last days of the Civil War, southern officers Jorge Rivero and Chris Mitchum manage to stop and rob a train loaded with gold of the U.S. Army. Colonel John Wayne will find them and incarcerate them. A few weeks later, at the end of the war, Wayne and the ex-confederation soldiers become pals. Still looking for the men who've betrayed the North by giving informations about the train, Wayne returns home in Texas. He's soon contacted there by Rivero who asks Wayne to join him in Rio Lobo where Chris Mitchum, along with other small ranchers, must face Sheriff Blue Tom and his deputies who are forcing them to sell their lands to the no good Ketcham. Wayne doesn't hesitate to come help his friends as the description of Ketcham corresponds to the description of one of the men he's still after.

Crested sapwood supportable noradrenaline runout.

--Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar

During a Civil War epilogue, Yankee colonel Cord McNally (Wayne) is waiting for a gold shipment by train which is stolen by a Rebel raiding party headed by captain Pierre Cordona (Rivero), and is briefly captured by the Rebs before getting the shipment back. (McNally and Cordona realize they have had at least one run-in before, at a poker game in Texas.) The war ends soon after, and the two find themselves joined up on a mission to Rio Lobo, Texas: Cordona to help a comrade who is being bullied by the local land-stealing baron and his gang, McNally to find the treasonous inside man on the gold thefts. They hook up with a gorgeous medicine show huckster (O'Neill) whose mentor has been killed by the same gang. This is a fair-to-middling 1970 Western that plays by old-fashioned values at a time when "The Wild Bunch" and "Little Big Man" were overturning the cliches of the genre. Its pedigree is interesting: 74-year-old Howard Hawks directed his last film based on a script cowritten by sci-fi and fantasy author Leigh Brackett. The movie features terrific supporting performances by Jack Elam as a wild man ranch owner and David Huddleston as a sharp-eyed dentist, and Rivero and O'Neill provide eye candy (she manages to look winsome and flirtatious even when complaining about a drunken ex-husband), along with comely Susana Domantes and future big shot producer Sherry Lansing as other comely wenches.

Crested sapwood supportable noradrenaline runout.

--David Loftus, Resident Scholar

Analysis of Rio Lobo

Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about
books by breaking them down into many different literary
elements, all of which are searchable (click here).

Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 40%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 10%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 50%

Time/Era of Movie: - 19th century
War Thriller Yes
Specific to - US Civil War
Western Yes
Kind of western: - hunting down outlaws

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - senior military - cowboy
Age: - 40's-50's
Hair color? - brunette (Brown)
Hair style - short/standard straight (man)
Body type - muscular (man)
Events of movie makes character more... - happy
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - bulging muscles - very athletic

Secondary Main Character
Identity: - Male
Hair color - brunette (Brown) - brunette (Black)
Hair style - (man) short/standard straight
Body type - average build (man)
How much in movie? - 60% - 80%
Ethnicity/Nationality - French

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 20's-30's - 40's-50's
Profession/status: - thief/con artist - police/lawman
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - 20% - 40%
Hair color - brunette (Brown) - brunette (Black)
Hair type - (man) short/standard straight
Body type - fat (man) - average (man)
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique
How sensitive is this character? - mean, arrogant

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Southeast - Texas - West
Small town? Yes
Small town people: - nice, like Andy/Opie/Aunt Bee - hostile, like Gomer Pyle on steroids
Misc setting - prison - resort/hotel - moving train - cave

Style
Accounts of torture and death? - non-gory references to death/punishment - gory visuals of deaths
Movie makes you feel... - encouraged - excited
How many deaths in film? - 8 or more
Sex/nudity in movie? Yes
What kind of sex: - kissing
Kind of violence: - mission to protect something - hand to hand - guns
Unusual forms of death - perforation--bullets
Any profanity? - None
If Soundtrack VERY NOTICEABLE... - Orchestra/classical

Most similar reviews by Gordonator ranking
The Outlaw Josey Wales starring Clint Eastwood, John Vernon, Sondra Locke, Chief Dan George, Will Sampson, Bill McKinney
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach
Lightning Jack starring Paul Hogan, Cuba Gooding Jr., Beverly D'Angelo, Pat Hingle, L.Q. Jones
The Ox-Bow Incident starring Henry Fonda, Harry Morgan, Dana Andrews, Anthony Quinn, Margaret Hamilton, Harry Davenport, Mary Beth Hughes
Winchester 73 starring James Stewart, Shelley Winters, Will Geer, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Stephen McNally, Millard Mitchell,

Rio Lobo Message Board (click here)
Movie talk: favorite scenes, what to buy, favorite online
posters, movies for sale on dvd v. rentals.

Search for another movie

Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

Click here to bribe
your congressman

Use our site!
Feedback
About us

Most recent discussions:

General Movie Talk
Dating Advice
Clash of the Titans
Blade Runner
Bye Bye Birdie
No Good Deed
The 13th Warrior
A Boy and His Dog
Boomerang
Alien Hunter
Hackers
Lorenzo's Oil