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John Wayne, Jorge Rivero, Jennifer O'Neill, Jack Elam, Christopher Mitchum ... see more see more... , Victor French , Mike Henry (I) , Susana Dosamantes , David Huddleston , Bill Williams , Jim Davis , Sherry Lansing , Dean Smith , Robert Donner , Edward Faulkner , Robert Rothwell , Chuck Courtney , George Plimpton , Peter Jason , Don 'Red' Barry , William Byrne , Chuck Hayward , Boyd 'Red' Morgan , Chuck Roberson , Bob Steele , Ethan Wayne , Hank Worden , Jose Angel "Ferrusquilla" Espinosa , Frank Kennedy , Danny Sands , John R. McKee , Jennifer O'Niell

John Wayne, in the last of his Civil War characterizations, portrays Cord McNally, a Union Army colonel who loses a gold shipment in a Confederate raid, during which a devoted young officer is also ki... read more read more...lled. After the end of the war, McNally bears no ill-will toward the leaders of the raid, Pierre Cordona (Jorge Rivero) and Tuscarora Phillips (Christopher Mitchum), who were acting as soldiers, but he still wants the two unknown men on the Union side who they say sold them the information about the gold shipments. A year later, McNally crosses paths with one of the men, now a deputy from Rio Lobo, who is about to take Shasta Delaney (Jennifer O'Neill), a seemingly innocent young woman, out of a neighboring town at gunpoint. A shootout ensues, in which McNally's man and three other Rio Lobo deputies are killed, with help from Cordona -- this makes McNally very interested in what's going on in Rio Lobo, and he decides to go there with Cordona and Shasta. They find a whole community under siege from their own sheriff, a sadistic ex-outlaw named Hendricks (Mike Henry). What follows is a series of confrontations and revelations that are alternately suspenseful, sadistic -- with maimings worthy of a spaghetti western and characters even getting blown to bits -- and even occasionally comical. But the pieces all tie together very neatly, despite a convoluted plot that's sort of Rio Bravo (made 11 years earlier, also starring Wayne and directed by Hawks, and scripted by Leigh Brackett) turned sideways and readjusted to a more cynical era. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

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74% liked it

7,149 ratings

Critics

71% liked it

21 critics

G, 1 hr. 54 min.

Directed by: Howard Hawks

Release Date: June 1, 1971

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DVD Release Date: April 29, 2003

Stats: 241 reviews

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George Plimpton and John Wayne Rio Lobo
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Flixster Reviews (241)

  • ythelastman89
    September 6, 2010
    ythelastman89
    Kind've just a better version of True Grit, aside from the slightly better performance from The Duke. While this isn't Howard Hawks' greatest movie, it's certainly a great way to go out. This has some real differences from his other work, especially the opening. It's got all the ... read morecharm and wit necessary for a Howard Hawks vehicle. He made some of the most lovable movies to ever exist and this is no exception.
  • matertenebraum
    January 10, 2009
    matertenebraum
    While hardly the most auspicious of swan songs, Hawks? underrated final film sees a reprise of some of his favorite themes ? including the siege/hostage exchange situation from RIO BRAVO (1959), a Western he had already partially remade as EL DORADO (1966); incidentally, John Way... read morene starred in all three titles.

    It opens with an elaborate gold shipment robbery from a moving train by Confederate soldiers; Wayne is a Unionist Colonel who goes after the culprits but, the war over, befriends ?enemies? Jorge Rivero and Chris Mitchum when they reveal the identity of a couple of Yankee traitors ? one is a deputy sheriff and the other an unscrupulous landowner (Victor French). The film shares its partnership-between-Union-and-Confederate-soldiers angle with Wayne?s earlier Western THE UNDEFEATED (1969) ? but, Hawks being Hawks, it?s presented here in a far more complex (and rewarding) manner.

    As is usual for the director, a spirited female protagonist is thrown into the fray ? in this case, Jennifer O?Neill as a traveling-show performer who falls foul of French and his dastardly sheriff (Mike Henry); of course, she becomes romantically involved with Rivero ? a situation Wayne observes with bemusement. Jack Elam is a delight as Mitchum?s trigger-happy coot of a foster parent, making him an ideal replacement for the Walter Brennan of RIO BRAVO. The film also features an unusually wistful score for a genre effort courtesy of Jerry Goldsmith.

    All things considered, however, RIO LOBO still emerges as the least of the loose Wayne/Hawks Western trilogy: this is chiefly due to severe undercasting when compared to the earlier efforts ? with, say, Rivero being no match for James Caan from EL DORADO. Though a lot of exposition is necessary for the various plot threads to fall into place, the film (co-scripted by Hawks regular Leigh Brackett) provides plenty of action throughout its almost 2-hour length. The climax is exciting and well-staged, and includes the revenge on Henry by a young girl he has viciously scarred for life (played by Sherry Lansing, future head of the Fox and Paramount studios and currently Mrs. William Friedkin) ? which, however, calls for O?Neill to be virtually absent from these final stages and the film to end abruptly (albeit on a running joke involving Wayne)! Unfortunately, too, the DivX copy I watched proved rather hazy and suffered from occasional compression artifacts.
  • deano
    April 14, 2007
    deano
    Fast-moving, exciting and totally engrossing of John Wayne western film. And Jack Elam is terrific in a delightful supporting role.
  • fb704730572
    April 3, 2011
    fb704730572
    Not in the same league as Howard Hawks' masterpiece Rio Bravo, or the excellent El Dorado, Rio Lobo is still an overall good western. The weakness of the overall cast is lifted, as happens often, by Wayne.
  • donaldwhite1
    November 14, 2009
    donaldwhite1
    John Wayne made this movie right after he made "True Grit". This movie is nowhere near the quality of "True Grit". It's like they decided to make a movie and just re-used ideas from past John Wayne movies. John Wayne was way too old to be playing the character in this movie. ... read moreOf course he just played himself. They threw in a bunch of young good looking actresses to add a little sex appeal. But none of them could act. Jack Elam was the only interesting character, but that was just your typical Jack Elam character. The story was set at the end of the Civil War and a few years after. They never really said how long but the guns used in the second half of the movie were not from the era. The first part with the Confederate guerillas robbing the Union train was good. Although Union payrolls in the Civil War wouldn't have been gold but would have been paper Greenbacks. After that the story made no sense. The Union and Confederate soldiers become friends when the war is over. The hard feelings between north and south lasted for years after the war. Most of your good western stories deal with this lingering hatred between northerners and southerners as the western United States was settled in the last half the 19th century. This movie glossed over these facts and made the bad guy an ex-Union soldier who sold information to the Confederates and then went to Texas to buy up land from the poor southern landowners. The story has so many holes in it I can't list them all here. George Plimpton had a bit part in the movie and gets shot. I remember watching the TV special he did about being in this movie. He showed how they staged the shootout and used wires to jerk him back when he got shot. It was some sort of Thanksgiving special because I remember watching it at my Aunt and Uncle's house in McAlester, OK. I never saw the movie until I bought the DVD. It was supposed to be the third movie where he gets barricaded in a jailhouse. In this movie it's only the last 15 minutes of the story.
  • drcna123456
    October 11, 2008
    drcna123456
    one of my ALL time favorite films
    It has all of my favorite actors in it and of course the gun play at the end was a splended piece of work as well
    Too bad they don'y make movies like this any more
  • manly500usa
    January 17, 2008
    manly500usa
    After the Civil War, Cord McNally searches for the traitor whose perfidy caused the defeat of McNally's unit and the loss of a close friend.
  • CodemanRaider
    February 22, 2007
    CodemanRaider
    John Wayne is my hero. Howard Hawks is an amazing director. These are the films I was raised on. I love westerns.
  • splittailluvr
    October 12, 2006
    splittailluvr
    Not one of the better John Wayne western movies set at the end of the Civil War its a good movie but nothing to cheer about.
  • unexpectedangel
    August 13, 2006
    unexpectedangel
    "Rio Lobo" is my fav
    John Wayne movie.
    But of course Jorge Rivero is
    another grand reason to watch it.

View All Rio Lobo Reviews

Critic Reviews

Jay Cocks
May 23, 2011
Jay Cocks, TIME Magazine

The Duke knows by instinct what audiences accept without question: whatever he may be called in the script, he is always unmistakably John Wayne. And who would have it any other way? Full Review

May 13, 2008
Variety

Hawks' direction is as listless as the plot. Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

In this case, the story itself doesn't matter much. We go to a classic John Wayne Western not to see anything new, but to see the old done again, done well. Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum
January 1, 2000
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

The fact that its best action sequence, the first, was directed by the second unit is emblematic of Hawks's relative lack of engagement with the material. Full Review

John J. Puccio
July 11, 2011
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis

...it appears both the Duke and Hawks sort of walked through this one. Full Review

Michael E. Grost
July 7, 2010
Michael E. Grost, Classic Film and Television

Delightful Western with unusually rich visual style. Full Review

Fernando F. Croce
September 6, 2009
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion

A film of mementos, of deliberately pale shadows Full Review

May 13, 2008
TV Guide's Movie Guide

For such a refined director as Hawks to end his career on a note like this, having made some of the finest films in the history of American cinema, is an atrocity not worth the silver used in the nega... Full Review

Emanuel Levy
November 4, 2007
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

Hawks last Western is his weakest collaboration with Wayne, but the film offers an occasion to see the aging Duke trying to rise above the routine plot and amateurish ensemble, including Sherry Lansin... Full Review

Geoff Andrew
June 24, 2006
Geoff Andrew, Time Out

If it lacks the formal perfection of Rio Bravo and the moving elegy for men grown old of El Dorado, it's still a marvellous film. Full Review

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Rio Lobo Trivia

  • In what movie was John Wayne told that he was "comfortable"?  Answer »
  • What actor played in Rio Lobo as Col. Cord McNally?  Answer »
  • Who directed these classic westerns: 'Rio Lobo', 'Rio Bravo', and 'El Dorado'?  Answer »
  • What did these movies have in common? Rio Bravo Rio Lobo Eldorado Support Your Local Sheriff  Answer »
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