John Wayne's Rio Bravo Trilogy, Ranked
Here's John Wayne's unofficial Rio Bravo trilogy, ranked from worst to best. Wayne kicked off his career with a small, uncredited role in the 1926 silent movie Brown Of Harvard, and it wasn't until 1939's Stagecoach that he became a star. The actor appeared in a variety of genres and roles throughout his 50-year career, including war movies like Sands Of Iwo Jima, comedy-drama The Quiet Man and even an epic romance like The Barbarian And The Geisha — where Wayne reportedly punched director John Huston.
Wayne is, of course, mostly linked to the Western genre. He's the quintessential Western movie star and appeared in some of the most iconic films in the genre, including True Grit, The Searchers, Red River and The Cowboys. Even with the decline in popularity of the Western, he was making movies in the genre right until the end of his career, with his last movie being 1976's The Shootist. Outside of 1975's Rooster Cogburn — his penultimate movie — Wayne never made an official sequel.
Related: Rooster Cogburn Was John Wayne's Only Sequel
That said, his Rio Bravo director Howard Hawks liked the basic premise of that 1959 Western so much, that he essentially remade it twice. Each outing remixes themes and characters to some extent, and they form an odd trilogy of sorts.
Rio Lobo marked the end of Hawks' career, and sadly is arguably one of his worst movies. The story sees Wayne's — who turned down a Clint Eastwood Western — Union cavalry officer heading to the titular lawless town to track down two traitors. Whereas the previous two movies had a sparky energy and witty dialogue, nearly everything withRio Lobo feels plodding. Wayne is a little too old for the lead, while his co-star Jorge Rivero totally lacks the charisma of
Read more on screenrant.com
