This sequel to Gunfight at Rio Bravo takes our lead and brings him into a plot where women were taken from their Western town by sex traffickers to be sold to rich men, bring our hero and his friend the Sheriff to go save these ladies and end the traffickers.
Written by Craig Hamann, based on a story by Hamann and Alexander Nevsky, and directed by Joe Cornet, this sequel comes fairly soon on the heels of the first film, taking place in the same time era and in the same Western town. A few characters have exited between the two films and new ones were added. While some of these additions seem to have been written into the movie to bring in more legends of action cinema, this viewer isn’t complaining. The story here is a classic one of bad men taking innocent women, so good men need to go rescue them. The main difference here is that the story is swift, entertaining, fun even, giving the viewers more to see than people arguing, and women being hurt to advance the story. Yes, some women do get hurt to advance the story, but it is not central and one of the standards of this type of story is not present thankfully (for those unused to noticing these details, there is no rape). Yes, there is a bunch of violence here, but most of it is directed at men, men trained for it or straight up bad guys. The story is about showing the heroism of the lead and his colleagues, so bad guys do bad guys things, and the good guys stop them.
The cast here is once again fun which is a standard for the films from this crew. The lead, of course, is played by Alexander Nevsky, based on a historical figured and adjusted for the needs of the film of course. Nevsky, as usual, does his best to be the hero, the one who has the best lines, but also the one who who is not so self-aggrandizing. Yes, he is the hero here and one of the producers and writers, but he also gives plenty room for others to shine, including the top-billed (on IMDB at least) Cynthia Rothrock who gets to show what she does best for a too-short scene when the bad guys arrive in town. More of her is always a good thing, and while she gets very little time here, she shines as usual. Joining her from the action hero pantheon is Don Wilson who plays a native man so perhaps not the best choice here given backgrounds not matching, but he does decent with the part and gets to have a bit of a fight scene, something we don’t see him do enough of anymore. Back to the main characters, Joe Cornet comes back as the Sheriff and his acting is getting better, so kudos there. Showing up as a surprise of sorts (spoiler alert) is Art Camacho who served as fight choreographer and also gets a small part where he shows what he can do. More Camacho on screen please! The supporting cast here is good, giving performances that work for the film and even stealing the occasional scene.
The cinematography here is also a bit of upgrade from the first film, giving us images that are beautiful with some looking straight up like post cards. The work by Sam Wilkerson works great here, setting the old West feel just right and giving the characters a picturesque world to evolve in. The town is well shot so that is doesn’t look like a set, the scenes out of town look just right as well. The editing works with these images just right as well, adding dynamism throughout. The music is on point, the costumes and the decor work, it’s clearly a film made on a budget but with love for cinema which elevates everything here.
Taken from Rio Bravo is a worthy sequel to Gunfight At Rio Bravo, one that works on many levels, shows love for cinema and the Western genre from those making it, and shows that a solid action Western film can easily be followed up by a sequel that works just as well if not better.