YMMV / Rio Lobo

• Alternate Character Interpretation: While McNally, Cardona, and Tuscarora definitely end up Fire-Forged Friends in the end, do the two Confederates help McNally try to find the traitors out of decency and friendship from the start, or do they contact McNally solely out of pragmatism because his enemies are threatening Tuscarora and his father and they need help?
• Awesome Music: Jerry Goldsmith composes apretty neat and mood-fitting soundtrack for the film.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Jack Elam doesn't make his first appearance as ornery Plucky Comic Relief Papa Wolf Old Man Phillips until around the movie's halfway point, but his performance is often singled out as a highlight of the movie.
• Fair for Its Day: The film glorifies the Confederacy to an extent, Cardona's Chivalrous Pervert moments can feel outdated, and Mexican character Amelita is played by a Caucasian actress. However, the other two Mexican characters (one of whom has just as much prominence and character depth as Wayne's character) are played by Mexicans. Additionally, none of the prominent female characters are Neutral Females and two of them even shoot major villains (one of them fatally).
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: A lot of criticism toward the movie comes from it being the third Hawks movie where Wayne plays a lawman working to keep a prisoner from being busted out. Common Knowledge might be at play, considering that this only occupies the last quarter or so of the film.
• Just Here for Godzilla: The opening Train Job is all some fans are interested in.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Captain Pierre Cardona is a former gambler and officer in The American Civil War who plans a series of calculating payroll robberies to finance the confederacy with the Union's money. In the aftermath of audacious Train Job, Cardona captures his lead pursuer, Cord McNally, only for McNally to eventually turn the tables. Cardona takes his loss gracefully but refuses to make a deal that will earn his freedom at the cost of hurting his allies. After the war ends though he befriends his former captor and agrees to help the man against the traitors who enabled the robbery while also seeking to stop those same traitors from harming his friend and former subordinate Tuscarora Phillips. He also goes from a Chivalrous Pervert to a Ladykiller in Love after meeting a strong-willed woman who wants to help fight the villains. When he becomes a Distressed Dude and hostage, Cardona still puts up a good fight before being captured and instantly recognizes a signal to take advantage of a bold escape opportunity and rejoin the fight.
  • Sergeant Tuscarora Phillips is Cardona's Number Two and aides his boss in the most vital parts of the Train Job and the capture of McNally. He is in charge of guarding McNally during the hero's captivity and does so effectively. When McNally lures the confederate soldiers into a union camp, Tuscarora nearly escapes with a Reed Snorkel. After the war ends, he joins his commander in making peace with McNally and returns to his hometown of Rio Lobo, where he comes into conflict with a ruthless Cattle Baron who turns out to be one of the men McNally is hunting. When Tuscarora is framed for rustling beaten and arrested, he avoids blowing the cover of a nearby McNally. Upon being rescued from jail, he immediately joins in the efforts to bring down the big bad, and comes up with a bold, spontaneous, and ultimately successful plan to ensure the survival of Cardona during the volatile prisoner exchange before joining the final gunfight.
  • Corporal Bide McCord is a Mook Lieutenant for Cardona and Phillips during the war. He listens to a railroad track to determine when a Union train is approaching and the Confederates need to get out of sight before helping rig an improvised anchor system for the runaway bagage car that Cardona is due to detach from the train engine. He loans Cardona an old bandage of his for a Wounded Gazelle Gambit and is the first man to become Properly Paranoid that McNally is manipulating his captors into a trap. He escapes the trap where Cardona and Phillips are captured but is also taken prisoner sometime afterward. He remains sunny and calm while talking with his former captors and joins Tuscarora in the life of a peaceful rancher. Although he is absent from most of the post-war action and intrigue, Bide gathers together a group of men to serve as The Cavalry, and also plans for a multi-pronged fight where some of his men attack the outlaws from different sides, turning an evenly matched shootout into a panicked rout where his side comes out ahead.
• Vindicated by History: Downplayed. When it came out, most fans agreed that the movie was a step down from most if not all of the other Howard Hawks movies John Wayne starred in (with Quentin Tarantino decrying it years later). Since then, more people have agreed that a below-average Wayne and Hawks western is still above average for the genre as a whole. As of 2022, it has very favorable critic and user reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

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