Rio Lobo

film by Hawks [1970]

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July 21, 2026

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Rio Lobo is a 1970 American Western film directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne. It is considered a variation on Hawks's earlier successful western, Rio Bravo (1959), and also shares thematic elements with El Dorado (1967), another film directed by Hawks and starring Wayne.12

In Rio Lobo, Wayne plays a former Union cavalry officer who, with his loyal men, pursues a Confederate gold thief. The film explores themes of loyalty, duty, and justice in the post-Civil War West. It was Hawks's final film, concluding a career that spanned over four decades and encompassed a wide range of genres, including westerns, comedies, and noirs.1

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Howard Hawks
Final films
Rio Lobo (1970), yet another variation on the formula, found Wayne supported by an odd cast that included Jennifer O’Neill and future studio head Sherry Lansing. It would prove to be Hawks’s last picture, some 45 years after he completed his first. In 1975 he…
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Rio Lobo (1970), yet another variation on the formula, found Wayne supported by an odd cast that included Jennifer O’Neill and future studio head Sherry Lansing. It would prove to be Hawks’s last picture, some 45 years after he completed his first. In 1975 he…
Read More