|
The late Dean Martin is on the left, in his
natural habitat
|
I'm no movie critic, and no doubt shouldn't be,
either,
because a) I'd rather read a book anyway, and b) this entry goes
against the opinion of pretty much every critic I've
seen from the late Roger Ebert on down.
But maybe I'm not the only one who feels this way. So I'll go ahead
and make my case.
It's almost entirely based on casting.
Variations on a Theme
Howard Hawks made Rio
Bravo back in 1959, with the basic
story being that a sheriff's
deputy got lost to drink, and a villainous character took advantage.
When the sheriff and friends got one of the villain's close
associates jailed, they promptly got besieged there.
That's the basic plot to Rio
Bravo, and then to Hawks' return to
the same basic story structure, El
Dorado (1966), and then Hawks' last
movie, Rio Lobo
(1970). You can look those up pretty much anywhere, and you'll find
that practically everyone puts them in same order as far as quality.
Rio Bravo
first, Rio Lobo
last.
I don't, however. I put El
Dorado first, then Rio
Lobo, and finally Rio
Bravo. Again, it's the casting.
But to keep from going on too long when no one's going to agree with
me anyway, I'll only focus on the first two.
Casting I
Look at the casts:
Rio Bravo
|
Role
|
El Dorado
|
John Wayne
|
Sheriff
|
Robert Mitchum
|
Dean Martin
|
Sheriff's deputy/friend
|
John Wayne
|
Ricky Nelson
|
Young helper
|
James Caan
|
Walter Brennan
|
Quirky helper
|
Arthur Hunnicutt
|
Angie Dickinson
|
Love interest(s)
|
Charlene Holt/Michele Carey
|
John Russell
|
Villain
|
Christopher George
|
Claude Akins
|
Imprisoned villain
|
Ed Asner
|
John Russell
|
Villain
|
Christopher George
|
Now, if you want go give Walter Brennan the
edge over Hunnicutt, I won't argue. And I'll give you Angie
Dickinson ahead
of the two actresses in El Dorado,
even though
I find Dickinson's character vastly irritating, the way she's
written.
But good as Claude Akins was in Rio
Bravo, Ed Asner is better in El
Dorado. And Christopher George
gives his villain much more of an edge than John Russell does in Rio
Bravo.
Casting II
Here's where, for me, there's no question. My
suspension of disbelief does not extend to Dean Martin as a deputy,
or Ricky Nelson as a deadly gunfighter. Maybe if I'd seen these
movies when they were new, rather than in the 1970s or later, I'd
feel differently.
But whenever I see Dean Martin, if he's not
in a tux, holding a martini, and looking tipsy, I can't help but
supply those things in my head. I saw his TV show in the 70s, along
with various specials and such, and that's how he was, all the time.
All. The. Time. I can't see him any other way. Dean.
Tux. Martini. I mean, That's
Amore, isn't it?
As for Ricky Nelson, he does his best, and he's
certainly not bad. But he comes across to me as a kid acting tough,
as opposed to James Caan, who absolutely was tough. Wikipedia says
that growing up, he "often participated in street fights.
At that time, he enjoyed boxing, rodeo and motorcycle riding."
Besides, Caan's character isn't written as any kind of gunhand. He's
more a tough kid who's a bit naive, and whose role, in fact, includes
comic relief.
So I'll take El Dorado first any day. (And Rio Lobo
works for me better than Rio Bravo for similar reasons.)
Final Point
El Dorado
has Caan's character reciting most of an excellent poem by Edgar
Allan Poe over the course of the movie:
Gaily bedight,
A
gallant knight,
In sunshine
and in shadow,
Had journeyed
long,
Singing a song,
In
search of Eldorado.
But
he grew old—
This knight
so bold—
And o'er his
heart a shadow
Fell as he
found
No spot of ground
That
looked like Eldorado.
And, as his strength
Failed
him at length,
He met a
pilgrim shadow—
"Shadow,"
said he,
"Where can it
be—
This land of
Eldorado?"
"Over
the Mountains
Of the
Moon,
Down the Valley of the
Shadow,
Ride, boldly
ride,"
The shade
replied—
"If you seek
for Eldorado!"
It doesn't get any better than that.
