Review of Rio Lobo (1970) by Trevor O — 07 Feb 2011

John Wayne and Howard Hawkes made several films together spanning nearly four decades. Rio Lobo was the grand finale late in the storied careers of these two legendary Hollywood icons. By 1970 the Western genre was starting to fade from popularity, except for the few remaining John Wayne and Clint Eastwood vehicles.

Rio Lobo was a throwback to the good .vs the bad of earlier Western's and went against the grain of the "anti-hero" types that clearly began to be prevalent throughout the 1960s. The plot of this film was certainly something ahead of its time with Union army personnel committing treasonous atrocities that seamed to be more in line with the later spy scandals of selling US secrets to the Russians late in the cold war.

Of interest to some will be seeing a 25 year old Sherry Lansing who would later go on to become one of the first female top ranking studio executives (First at Fox and later at Paramount), be the woman who took out the worst of the bad guys, a role normally reserved for the Duke.

The MPAA Classification and Ratings Administration however needs to seriously think about re-symboling this film from its current G rating to a PG. It is much to violent, and the scene with Amelita (Sherry Lansing) with her blouse off covering her bare breasts with her arms talking quite sensually with Pierre Cardona (Jorge Rivero) is clearly beyond what a G rating is supposed to mean.