MovieChat Forums > Rio Lobo (1970) Discussion > George Plimpton

George Plimpton

posted 13 years ago by SweetHotAngel
4 replies | jump to latest

Plimpton was an in situ journalist at the time, who would report from the inside, like Hunter S. Thompson, except more tame. While Thompson went inside the Hells Angels or drugs, Plimpton went inside football teams and making films.

He got famous for joining the training camp of the Detroit Lions in 1963 and then writing a book about it called "Paper Lion." Then when the book was made into a movie starring Alan Alda as Plimpton, he got even bigger. After that whatever he did got lots of attention.

So in 1970 he decided to go inside the making of a movie and he was able to get a very small role, albeit one with a line, in a John Wayne movie: this one, Rio Lobo. Because Plimpton was a semi-celebrity he got a well promoted documentary on TV about this whole experience.

For us teenagers at this time, John Wayne was square. We had NO desire to go see a John Wayne movie. We wanted to see Eastwood or Redford or Hackman or Scott or Beatty, not pro-war "Green Berets" John Wayne. But my crowd all saw the Plimpton TV documentary and wanted to see the real thing. So we went to see Rio Lobo.

I wonder if anyone else remembers all this and if they had a similar experience? I wonder if Plimpton's documentary helped Rio Lobo at the box office? I wonder if the aging baby boomers later appreciation of John Wayne was in any way helped by many of us going to see Rio Lobo due to watching the Plimpton documentary?

"Is it bright where you are? Have the people changed? Does it make you happy you're so strange?"

[–] gallifreyent 12 years ago

I was barely a teen, and I thought George was hot stuff in a purely intellectual way. I wasn't aware of his sports involvement until after the Rio Lobo doc, but I read his literary columns regularly. My family really loved all kinds of movies, including John Wayne's westerns. Like you, though, I saw him as very square outside those films.

The Rio Lobo program was great fun. No kidding, every time I hear someone on a tv show or in a film say they need a warrant, I think of George's struggle to get his line just right through numerous attempts. "I've got a warrant right here for you, Sheriff," or "This here's your warrant, mister," and so on. Wasn't this line dropped from the film in the editing room?

His other background docs were interesting, but that was my favorite. The reason I came to this board just now was to see if anyone else remembered it. :)

~If you go through enough doors, sooner or later you're gonna find a dog on the other side.~

[–] robin-moss2 12 years ago

I saw that George Plimpton documentary on telelevision. It was pretty good. I think it a great shame it isn't included on the Blu-ray disc as an extra. It doesn't deserve to be forgotten.

[–] joegerardi-1 8 years ago

For us teenagers at this time, John Wayne was square. We had NO desire to go see a John Wayne movie.

Not entirely true. For many of us teenagers, we couldn't wait to see the next John Wayne movie. I was 13 when this came out- I had to wait for a Saturday to go see it, and it was agony.

..Joe

[–] liscarkat (19396) 3 years ago

Me too. I was sixteen, and my friends and I liked John Wayne and went to all his movies, and watched the old ones on tv. We never considered his age or felt like we needed to see only actors closer to our age. The Duke was cool, an action hero. Kids back then didn't want their heroes to be more like them, they wanted to be more like their heroes.