Metacritic reviews

It's a very funny, very moving work, graced by the cinema's cleanest, most classical style.

It's a witty, exciting and deeply moving masterpiece.

El Dorado is essentially a darker remake of Rio Bravo, with Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Hunnicutt and James Caan as the now archetypal quartet. But, though the situation is the same, the mood is crisper, tenser, with a heightened sense of pain, loss and death underlying the humor and action.

An excellent oater drama, laced with adroit comedy and action relief, and set off by strong casting, superior direction and solid production.

El Dorado is a tightly directed, humorous, altogether successful Western, turned out almost effortlessly, it would seem, by three old pros: John Wayne, Robert Mitchum and director Howard Hawks.

The taut guidance of Mr. Hawks, an old frontier hand, the barbed, pungent and frequently funny dialogue, plus some murderous gun forays, add up to crisp entertainment

It’s not that Hawks’ style rescues El Dorado; it’s that it integrates all of these problems, producing a movie that feels effortlessly complete and consistent, despite being, frankly, all over the place.

Sly, leisurely-paced western from Howard Hawks, with a script by Leigh Brackett ensuring a few laughs.

Pangs of déjà vu might strike while watching El Dorado, as it’s a thinly-veiled remake of an earlier John Wayne film directed by Howard Hawks and co-written by Leigh Brackett for Warner Bros., 1959’s Rio Bravo. Though the stories are similar, El Dorado feels sharper, bolstered by Harold Rosson’s brilliant photography with scenes seemingly painted on celluloid.

John Wayne and Robert Mitchum, parodying themselves while looking exhausted. When the movie starts, you have the sense of having come in on a late episode of a TV series.