TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

billcr12 I am fifty years behind in finally seeing this great western, starring Robert Mitchum and John Wayne. Who would have expected the free wheeling, pot smoking Mitchum to work so well with the seemingly anal retentive,uptight conservative Wayne. They are absolutely great together as two aging gunfighters who reunite to battle another gun for hire. A young James Caan, a few years before his role as Sonny in the Godfather, rounds out the team. Mitchum has finally settled down as the sheriff of a sleepy town as Wayne shows up to right some wrong. They both are wounded along the way, leading to some extremely funny exchanges, as the pair show perfect comedic timing. Caan is a gambler who is completely inept with guns and gets the best lines in the movie. El Dorado is a must see film.

sol- Having turned down a crooked job to avoid having to fight a longtime friend turned sheriff, a gunslinger comes to town to help his sheriff friend out after learning that somebody very violent has accepted the job instead in this popular western drama starring John Wayne and Robert Mitchum. The chemistry between the two stars feels very real every step of the way and as Wayne teams up with James Caan who has recently avenged a friend's death, the movie ultimately becomes a testament to the power and importance of friendships. There is some nice additional drama along these lines as Wayne finds himself needing to sober Mitchum up before helping him to fend of those incoming. Potent as the drama often is though, the film backfires each and every time it tries to inject humour into the story; at its most excruciating, Mitchum is comically whacked over the head when drunk and Caan imitates a Chinese man by scrunching up his face. Fortunately, the humour is quite sporadic and the overall tale remains powerful until the end. Particularly remarkable are the shots of the three protagonists cautiously wandering the shadowy streets at night, alert for possible sniper attacks. Wayne also impressively manages to ride his horse backwards at one point, as if reversing in a car, in order to keep his eyes on various marksmen who might try to shoot him as he departs.

Scott LeBrun This slam-bang Western is truly a very fine diversion, with filmmaker Howard Hawks at the top of his game. Hawks works from an engaging screenplay by Leigh Brackett, who (loosely) adapted the Harry Brown novel "The Stars in Their Courses", and gets excellent performances out of just about everybody. It gets serious, but never too serious, and is generously laced with comedy. The fact that this was a big box office success showed that audiences still had an appetite for what could be seen as "old-fashioned" entertainment.The Duke plays Cole Thornton, an aging gunslinger approached by nefarious rancher Bart Jason (Ed Asner) to work for him. Thornton turns the job down when he realizes that he'll have to go up against old friend J.P. Harrah (Robert Mitchum), the sheriff of the nearby town. Circumstances leave Thornton feeling indebted to the MacDonald family, the peaceable folk whose ranch is targeted by Jason. So he joins their cause, and is soon working alongside a young gambler named Mississippi (James Caan), who likes to use knives because he really isn't good with a gun.The Duke and Mitchum are a believable pair of friends, and together with a baby faced Caan (a few years away from scoring big as Sonny in "The Godfather") and a steadfast Arthur Hunnicutt as Bull, they all make a good team. The cast is full of good actors, with Christopher George a pleasure to watch as a smooth, confident hired gun. R.G. Armstrong, Paul Fix, Robert Donner, Johnny Crawford, and Adam Roarke all put in appearances as well, and the lovely ladies present also have good roles with which to work: Charlene Holt as Maudie, and feisty Michele Carey as "Joey" MacDonald, one of Armstrongs' kids. Olaf Wieghorst, who plays gunsmith Swede Larsen, did the beautiful paintings for the credit sequence.First rate photography combines with enjoyable atmosphere, some fun lines of dialogue, and plenty of Western violence in the "clutch yourself and fall down" tradition, which all help to make this a wonderful viewing experience. Nice music score by Nelson Riddle, too.There is a scene where Mississippi pretends to be a Chinaman in order to confuse a henchman, and people could easily see it as being racist. It has often been cut out of TV showings of the film.Essentially a reworking of Hawks' earlier "Rio Bravo", although Hawks himself would always deny this.9 out of 10.

buddyboy28 Six years after the success of Rio Bravo, director Howard Hawks re-worked elements of the plot for another great western with The Duke. The comparisons between the two films are in inevitable but this doesn't actually start to even resemble the previous film until around the halfway mark and by then it's already pulled you into it's story and warmed you to it's characters that it doesn't matter anyway. Personally I love both films but if I was forced to choose I'd probably say this was the superior film. I felt that Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson were too lightweight in Rio Bravo, whereas Robert Mitchum and James Caan here are perfectly cast and bring more to the table. I also think it works better to have an actual sheriff be the drunk (in this case Robert Mitchum in the role) rather than a deputy, and to have his friends try and help him get back on his feet and regain his dignity and self respect. But it's just a matter of opinion.Mitchum is fantastic in this as the drunken friend of gunslinger John Wayne. I'm not usually a fan of his but he really delivers the goods here. He's funny, pitiful and gutsy throughout. One of the best scenes shows him going into the saloon to get a bottle of whiskey and the townsfolk are laughing at him. It's a brilliant moment. He's been living in his own little bubble for months and it takes this for him to wake up and realise how far he's sunk. The way he walks out holding his bottle in such a pathetic manner and tries to keep it together when he sees his friend John Wayne looking at how terrible he looks, is a great piece of acting. Not a single word spoken from him. Equally good is the scene where he later goes back to the saloon and shows the bad guys and the residents he's still got what it takes. He really does put his own stamp all over this performance.And The Duke is The Duke. What more has to be said. By this time these roles just fit him like a glove but he has a really good part here to sink his teeth into rather than just been the typical hero. Near the beginning of the film he shoots a teenage boy in self defence, which results in the boy killing himself. This is a great sequence, where Wayne shows off just in his expression how guilty he feels. It also gives him a personal reason to get involved in helping out the boy's family later on.In many ways this is a funnier film than Rio Bravo but at the same time it's also a darker film in other ways and this is one such moment. John Wayne been responsible for a boy's death is certainly not something that would happen often in his films.James Caan plays a young cardsharp nicknamed Mississippi who befriends Wayne and Arthur Hunnicut plays Bull, an ex-Indian fighter turned deputy to Mitchum's sheriff. The film is really the Wayne and Mitchum show but these guys also have their moments and fit in nicely. The camaraderie between the four of them as they hole up in the sheriff's office, and their banter during the shootouts is consistently funny.Charlene Holt and Michelle Carey are both suitably sexy and provide some eye candy to balance out the male dominant proceedings, and Christopher George makes a memorable villain has a gunslinger with a moral code which makes a refreshing change in a traditional western.When it comes to the good guys vs bad guys, I think it works well if the good guys are outnumbered or are lacking in their skills to make them underdogs that you can really root for. Well in this case, these heroes are both outnumbered and lacking. J.P's struggling with his alcoholism, Bull is getting on in years, and Mississippi can't shoot straight. In fact his shooting's so bad he carries a shotgun instead of a pistol and then he's not much better. And Wayne suffers with periodic paralysis from a bullet that is lodged near his spine. So they have to make up for it with guts. Every time I watch this film I like it even more. They are just a great bunch of characters to hang out with.Hawks certainly knew how to make a great western and here he delivers again. From the great opening theme song right through to the climax, this is a joy for it's entire 2 hour running time. Despite the similarities it doesn't belong in Rio Bravo's shadow in my view, it deserves to be regarded as classic in it's own right.