El Dorado (1966)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title El Dorado
Original title El Dorado
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1966
length 121 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Howard Hawks
script Leigh Brackett
after Harry Brown
production Howard Hawks / Paramount
music Nelson Riddle
camera Harold Rosson
cut John Woodcock
occupation

El Dorado is a Western by Howard Hawks in 1966 with John Wayne and Robert Mitchum in the lead roles.

action

Cole Thornton, an aging gunslinger , is hired by Bart Jason, a cattle baron, to intimidate the McDonald family, who live in the small provincial community of El Dorado. In town he meets his old friend J. P. Harrah, like Thornton an excellent marksman who is sheriff 's responsibility. The latter explains to him that Bart Jason was wrong and had hired Thornton to keep Harrah at bay. Thornton then rejects Jason. However, a misunderstanding leads to a momentous encounter with the McDonald’s youngest son, who does not survive. When his sister Joey shoots Thornton to avenge the alleged murder of her brother, Thornton is hit. The bullet cannot be removed because it is too close to the spinal cord, and Thornton is soon on his way to another assignment.

In a border town he meets Nelse McLeod, another gunslinger, and a young man called "Mississippi", who wears a distinctive hat that some people ridicule him for. "Mississippi" still has a score to go with one of McLeod's people because he and three others shot his father's friend. After "Mississippi" has killed him in a fair fight with a knife throw, Cole helps him in the subsequent argument and befriends him. Thornton learns from McLeod that Jason has now hired him to fight the McDonalds. The time is right, as Sheriff Harrah is currently in no danger; from lovesickness he has become an uninhibited drunkard. Thornton immediately rushes to El Dorado to be there before McLeod and to assist his old friend. He is accompanied by "Mississippi", who cannot shoot. So Cole got him a sawed-off shotgun with an enormous spread factor. The bullet that is not removed is more and more troubling for Thornton, as it presses on a nerve and thus temporarily immobilizes his right arm.

Arrived in El Dorado, they find the sheriff drunk and totally shabby. "Mississippi" mixes a terrible medicine according to a special recipe, and with the potion they actually manage to sober up Harrah. The trio is joined by the old battle-hardened deputy deputy Bull and hotel manager Maudie, who has long been in love with Cole; but she doesn't want to let it show because she hasn't been able to get him to stay so far. In the meantime, McLeod has also arrived with his gang in El Dorado and the expected fight between the rivals takes place, in which Harrah finds his way back more and more to old form. Finally, McLeod is shot at the final test of strength with Thornton, like Jason before.

In the end, the good won and the two old warriors Thornton and Harrah both walk through the city with a stick. Thornton said that he was considering whether he could stay in town.

background

Hawks, who also shot Rio Bravo and decided on a very specific storyline, but also had another to choose from, realized this in El Dorado . For example, while in Rio Bravo the young man was an excellent shot, the young man ( James Caan ) here is the opposite of that. As in Rio Lobo , the third western staged by Hawks on the subject of male friendship, alcohol is not neglected in El Dorado either. However, the topic is treated in a very funny, just typical Western manner.

El Dorado begins like a tragedy. However, when the story focuses on the relationship between the two old warhorses (Wayne, Mitchum), things get amusing. And at the end all the rules of honor of the West are swept into the street dust of El Dorado: Thornton assaults the chief bandit who - dying - stunnedly accuses him of giving him no chance. Then Thornton says: “No, of course not. They are too fast to give you a chance! "

The song of the same name, El Dorado, which can be heard initially and was sung by George Alexander , became a classic.

John Wayne's horse was an Appaloosa stallion named Zip Cochise.

interpretation

  • "Howard Hawks creates the ideal image of a small, conspiratorial community that does a difficult task with serenity - and corrects the mythical aura of the aged heroes with a wink." - Lexicon of international films
  • Phil Hardy describes El Dorado as a "bleak film". While in Rio Bravo the moral superiority of the protagonists is also reflected in a physical one, here the aging gunslingers portrayed by Wayne and Mitchum are "all too aware of their declining abilities".
  • Joe Hembus states that "the humor and brutality" are "of sinister determination." The tragedy of the heroes is "that they have become too rickety."

Reviews

  • "Powerfully staged noble Western by master director Howard Hawks, who skillfully varies his classic 'Rio Bravo' [...] Despite the strange synchronization (Wayne has the voice of Mitchum and vice versa) an absolute Western highlight!" - Prisma Online
  • “In its classic mixture of action, psychology and comedy, the film is a funny variation on the basic pattern of another famous hawks-western, 'Rio Bravo', which critics rank among the ten best films in the world. Brilliant Robert Mitchum as a broken sheriff. "(Rating: 3½ stars = exceptional)
  • “Powerfully staged grand sisters who, in a good mood and with lots of humorous interludes, tells the story of an aging gunman and his friendship with a sheriff. The elegant directing, which above all knows how to shine with an imaginative variation of stereotypical clichés, cannot quite make up for the lack of a background. Well suited for western friends (around 14 years of age). ”- Protestant film observer

German dubbed version

Dubbing company: Berliner Synchron GmbH; Dialogue book: Fritz A. Koeniger ; Dialogue director: Hans Dieter Bove

role actor Voice actor
Cole Thornton John Wayne Wolfgang Lukschy
Sheriff JP Harrah Robert Mitchum Arnold Marquis
"Mississippi" James Caan Claus Jurichs
Beard Jason Edward Asner Edgar Ott
Bull Harris Arthur Hunnicutt Herbert Weissbach
Maudie Charlene Holt Renate Küster
Nelse McLeod Christopher George Christian Rode
Josephine "Joey" MacDonald Michelle Carey Traudel Haas
Kevin MacDonald RG Armstrong Herbert A. Knippenberg
Luke MacDonald Johnny Crawford Alfred Wittstock
Dr. Charles Donovan Anthony Rogers Lothar Blumhagen
Dr. Miller Paul Fix Paul Wagner

In popular culture

  • In the English-language original of the science fiction film Transformers , when she first met Sam , the character Bumblebee used an accusingly ironic question from John Wayne from El Dorado as part of her communication repertoire: “Any more questions you wanna ask?” (“Do you have any other Question?")

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ El Dorado. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ^ Phil Hardy: The Encyclopedia of Western Movies. Woodbury Press Minneapolis 1984. ISBN 0-8300-0405-X . P. 302
  3. ↑ Joe Hembus: Western Lexicon - 1272 films from 1894-1975. Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich / Vienna, 2nd edition 1977, ISBN 3-446-12189-7 , p. 169
  4. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon "Films on TV" (expanded new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , pp. 190-191
  5. ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 418/1967
  6. ↑ https://www.synchronkartei.de/film/910