RIO CONCHOS had a lot of potential . A former confederate officer who`s family have been murdered by Apaches joins up with a group of former union soldiers , one of whom is black , in order to destroy a bunch of rifles that have fallen into Apache hands . This premise sets up a character study about bitterness , racial hatred and possible betrayal , but being a 1960s western a posse of major cliches ride in from the horizon which cuts off the potential at the pass . Take this cliche for example , a convicted murderer wins a stay of execution if he helps the motley group find the weapons . If you set this in the second world war you`ve goty a cliche similar to nearly every war movie made in the 60s and 70s . In fact didn`t every Italian war film rip off a similar plot ? To be fair RIO CONCHOS was filmed several years before THE DIRTY DOZEN so this aspect probably felt quite fresh when seen at the cinema on its original release . There`s other things that make the movie dated though , like the stereotypical Mexicans who call everyone either " Gringo " or " Hombre " . I was seriously expecting Speedy Gonzales to turn up
There is something very odd about Edmond O`Brian`s villain who appears at the end . In many ways he`s like a meglomaniac who appears in James Bond films but not quite . After watching him on screen for a few minutes I had a niggling feeling in the back of mind that this character had been re-named and re-set in another film but where ? Suddenly a character asked " You want water ? " and the reply of " Go drink paddy water " flashed like a diamond bullet into my head . Of course Kurtz from APOCALYPSE NOW , and it was then that I made a startling observation that the basic structure of RIO CONCHOS of having a contrasting band of soldiers travel through hostile territory in order to complete a mission against a renegade army officer is the same as APOCALYPSE NOW so much so I can`t help thinking Coppola borrows as much from this film as he did from Conrad`s HEART OF DARKNESS . It goes without saying but that RIO CONCHOS is far inferior to APOCALYPSE NOW
There is something very odd about Edmond O`Brian`s villain who appears at the end . In many ways he`s like a meglomaniac who appears in James Bond films but not quite . After watching him on screen for a few minutes I had a niggling feeling in the back of mind that this character had been re-named and re-set in another film but where ? Suddenly a character asked " You want water ? " and the reply of " Go drink paddy water " flashed like a diamond bullet into my head . Of course Kurtz from APOCALYPSE NOW , and it was then that I made a startling observation that the basic structure of RIO CONCHOS of having a contrasting band of soldiers travel through hostile territory in order to complete a mission against a renegade army officer is the same as APOCALYPSE NOW so much so I can`t help thinking Coppola borrows as much from this film as he did from Conrad`s HEART OF DARKNESS . It goes without saying but that RIO CONCHOS is far inferior to APOCALYPSE NOW