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List Price: $16.99 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 7461
Released: May 19, 2009 |
| Our Price: $9.72 |
| Used Price: $9.71 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Genre: Westerns
Rating: NR
Release Date: 19-MAY-2009
Media Type: DVD
Description of El Dorado (Paramount Centennial Collection):
El Dorado doesn't quite have the scope or ambition of Howard Hawks's greatest Westerns, Red River and Rio Bravo. But this relaxed picture, made near the end of Hawks's marvelous career, still shows the steady, sure hand of a master. Hawks reunites with John Wayne, playing a hired gun mixed up in a range war; Robert Mitchum is Wayne's old pal, now a sheriff in the midst of a hopeless drunken bender. James Caan, in one of his first sizable roles, plays a kid who can't shoot straight and wears a funny hat (every character in the movie makes fun of this hat). As the plot moves along, it begins to resemble Rio Bravo rather closely ("I steal from myself all the time," Hawks was fond of admitting). But in El Dorado the heroes are a bit older, their powers a bit weaker; at the end Wayne must revert to a bit of subterfuge in order to get the drop on the steely gunslinger (ice-cold Christopher George) he needs to put down. As relaxed as the movie is, Hawks and Wayne and company are in good spirits, with plenty of broad humor and easy camaraderie on display. Hawks and Wayne would make just one more film, the disappointing Rio Lobo, before ending their fruitful partnership. --Robert Horton
El Dorado (Paramount Centennial Collection) Reviews:
One of the Great American Westerns. 
2009-10-18 - every once and a while me and my father will buy a classic western no matter how cheesy or weird it may look, today he came home with this movie El Dorado, at first i was expecting not too much due to how many westerns that were made, though i should have thought better whenever i saw that it starred two great film actors John Wayne and Robert Mitchum.
i may be young but i know good actors when i watch them on screen these two played beautifully off each other and so did another great actor James Caan
all the characters were played to perfection, even though anyone can play an alcoholic sheriff with a broken-heart Mitchum really made the role shine, of course John Wayne did wonderful as The Hired Gun, but my favorite role was that of Mississipi played by James Caan, in my opinion he did an astonishing job in this role and the scenes with him and Wayne were glorious.
in a lil side note the action scenes were done really well and there was also a slight editing issue during one of the scenes I'm sure you'll notice(but you must take into consideration the time when the movie was made)
thank you and you really must see this movie that could never be done today due to the fight between stars in leading roles.
Not a Hawkes masterpiece but it has its moments 
2009-09-10 - From time to time I've revisited this movie. Entertaining it is.
"El Dorado" has its hokey moments, James Caan going on and on about "ride boldly ride" in a poem about El Dorado, Maudie (John Wayne's love interest) taking up where numerous women in Wayne's movies have left off: "I'm not going to cry. I'm just going to buy a pine box, about 6-foot for you" and then the requisite speech about how men are dumb for fighting and women are saintly for waiting valiently for their men to come back home, blah, blah blah.
It has has a geezer sidekick (Arthur Honeycutt)who mimics Walter Brennen from "Rio Bravo," James Caan who mimics Ricky Nelson from "Rio Bravo" and Mitchum who mimics Dean Martin from "Rio Bravo" and, finally, Charlene Holt, who mimics Angie Dickinson in "Rio Bravo." See the pattern? "Rio Bravo" and "El Dorado" are essentially the same movie. A sheriff, his sidekick and John Wayne, his sidekick and his girlfriend. Formulaic.
Nonetheless, there is a good movie in here.
There are elements of Wild Woolly Westerns here.
Christopher George plays the bad guy gunslinger who nonetheless warms up to John Wayne's Cole Thornton and SPOILER ALERT! gets it in the end.
But there is a scene that is gold: George and his band of bad men walk into the bar to see the other bad guy/rancher Edward Asner.
As they walk in, tinkly piano music plays and they swagger in. It's straight out of a 1920s shoot-em-up.
It's not a work of art. But it will entertain. It will grow on you with subsequent showings.
John Wayne is the ultimate John Wayne with his John Waynisms. Mitchum is pretty much a bystander and goes through the motions.
All in all, entertaining and a poem to formula Cowboy movies.
El Dorado
2009-09-03 - This is one of those movies that has the old fashioned western feel from the beginning and all the characters do a terrific job of enhancing that sensation. Wayne and Mitchum are both on their game and play off each other like the pros they were. Since the plot is pretty simple, the characters get to show their stuff regularly throughout the movie. All parts of the movie provide fun and the old belief that the good guy should win and get the pretty girl. When you are through watching you have the feeling that the actors had as much fun making the movie as you had in watching it.
Centennial Edition - YES!!!!
2009-07-02 - This is a review of the 2009 2-disc Centennial Edition. If you're a fan of this movie (as I am), you probably already own the previous release (as I do), so the real question is: should you upgrade? The answer is unconditionally YES! The image quality of the new transfer is miles beyond the earlier version, and with an upconverting DVD player, it really looks fantastic. The bonus disk is enjoyable as well. Kudos to Paramount for doing a first rate job on this one. Although the movie itself may not qualify for classic status, it's great entertainment and, for my money, a better picture than its previous incarnation as "Rio Bravo." The easy camaraderie between John Wayne and Robert Mitchum, and the fun the director has with James Caan's character equals one good time!
the 2009 2 DVD edition is THE one to own !
2009-06-05 - I want to be clear as Amazon.com is mixing reviews for all of the editions of the movie of EL DORADO on DVD. This review is for the latest (2009) 2 DVD set Centennial Collection. Being an owner of the previous releases and a huge fan of the movie (probably in the minority who favor it to Rio Bravo)as far as the movie goes it looks stunning! The picture is crisp, the contrast brilliant and the color well saturated. If I didn't know better I'd think it was a VistaVision. The Second disc has some very entertaining and educational featurettes which kept me amused for over an hour themselves. James Caan is great in the film, Mitchum is ....Mitchum ..which is superb and Ed Asner brings a gravitas to his character. Oh...John Wayne is terrific and this is just a lot of fun.
