DVD Reviews

Rio Lobo (Blu-Ray)

I’ve never been the biggest fan of westerns, especially not the old ones from the 60s and 70s. I always found them quite boring growing up. Even then, I could tell that the production values tended to be on the low side and the stories and the acting weren’t nearly as good as the films I grew up loving. As an adult, I like to go back and take a look every now and then, and see if my judgment as a youngin’ was good or if I was just a kid who didn’t know any better.

The action is set in motion in Rio Lobo with a robbery of a Union pay train by Confederate guerillas. The train’s colonel (John Wayne) jails the enemy leaders but the three men later become friends when the war ends. Together they seek the Union traitors responsible for a string of Confederate train robberies, a mission that culminates in a rousing shoot-‘em-up finale.

The audio is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 surround. While it isn’t up to par with most modern films on Blu-ray, it did impress me quite a bit for a film of its age. Surrounds aren’t used much which was expected but what I liked was the low end punch the track produced. Everything about this track really came alive in the end action sequences with gun fire, explosions and the crack of wood and stone as bullets made their holes in buildings, walls and flesh. There’s also a DTS 2.0 mix which would probably be my suggested choice as it is the closest to the original sonic presentation. There are also tracks in French, Castilian, German and Spanish. Subtitles are available in English SDH, French, Castilian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish.

Rio Lobo comes in 1080p encoded with VC-1 on a dual layer BD-50 disc. The picture is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. I was a little surprised at the quality here. The picture is very nice with good detail, nice colour reproduction and little grain (for the most part). There is some damage and debris located throughout the picture but it is never really distracting. While the picture could have been better, short of a few scenes I can’t be too disappointed. The few scenes I do mention stand out like a sore thumb. They are gritty, lacking detail, full of grain and almost fuzzy in appearance. They almost seem as though they came from different source material and as such, are very distracting. Some may expect more from an old western such as this, but considering the low production values of the film, I’m pleased with what I saw. It could have been a lot worse.

There are no extras to be found on this release. Not even a trailer of some kind.

The Duke is a big name in film but it doesn’t mean that everything he touched turned to gold. Rio Lobo seems to be neither one of his great films nor one of his worst films. This may be in part due to the fact that even though he plays the main character, he seems to almost take a back seat to others on screen. And given the fact that it seems like Director Howard Hawks (who had worked with John Wayne previously) didn’t have his heart in this, his swan song, it’s no wonder the film just doesn’t have the power you might expect from The Duke. It also has a severe case of been there done that as many of the scenes and ideas had not only been done before, but done by Hawks himself previously (Rio Bravo, El Dorado). That isn’t to say the film isn’t entertaining. I did laugh at some of the poorly delivered lines, the lazy moments of acting and the annoying “French” accent of Jorge Rivero but I don’t think this was supposed to be a comedy. Fans of the film may be let down by the lack of extras on this release but the audio and video make it well worth owning. To those who are curious about the film, rent it first. I can’t quite recommend the film itself so it’s best you judge for yourself whether you want to add it to your collection.

Review By Rob Harding