Best Drama Movies on Netflix Right Now (2020)

No. 41 – El Dorado  (1966)

Written by: Leigh Brackett (screenplay)/Harry Brown (novel)

Directed by: Howard Hawks

Starring John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, James Caan, Charlene Holt, and Paul Fix

John Wayne, once again doing John Wayne things, stars as Cole Thornton, a bounty hunter by a rancher (Ed Asner) to help him in a ranch war he’s currently waged with the McDonald family on the outskirts of a town called El Dorado. The sheriff of the town and an old friend of Thornton’s, played by Mitchum, suffers from alcoholism and is unable to protect the town when the ranch war gets out of hand and Cole is shot.

This leads to another classic Howard Hawks western, similar to Wayne’s previous movie directed by him in Rio Bravo, in which we get to watch John Wayne spew awesome one-liners and walk like he hasn’t foam-rolled his hips in 45 years. The supporting cast is great, as both Mitchum and James Caan (whose character is literally named Mississippi because of course, it is) provide comic relief to this western drama, and Charlene Holt has a way of commanding screen time even in a very male-dominated script. This is a perfect film for those looking to capture some old fashioned John Wayne nostalgia.