Los cowboys

THE COWBOYS is a terrific western with a twist--the "boys" are indeed boys, teen-aged lads fresh out of a country schoolhouse but able to serve as the cowboys JOHN WAYNE needs to drive a herd of cattle 400 miles away to market. Wayne seems to be in the same position he was facing in RED RIVER, wherein finding the right cowboys for the long cattle drive was the main focus of the story.

There's plenty of scenic splendor in vivid Technicolor, a rousing western score by John Williams, and the cast of youngsters all give solidly natural performances under Mark Rydell's direction.

Outstanding work by ROSCOE LEE BROWNE as the black cook on the chuck wagon who knows how to deal with a bunch of rambunctious boys, and with an instinct for knowing when not to trust them with mischief. He plays a key role in the story and he's terrific.

Plenty of other good character roles are filled by BRUCE DERN, as the principal villain whose sadistic scene with a young boy is enough to curl your hair, and COLLEEN DEWHURST as the wise madame on the road with her girls.

The story hooked me from the start, kept me interested all the way through and only veered into tougher territory during the last forty minutes or so with the brutal showdown between Wayne and Dern. And then it moved briskly, taking an unexpected twist toward the last fifteen minutes.

Summing up: An overlooked gem and one of JOHN WAYNE's best movies. He gives a performance of true grit--and so do the boys!!

"The Cowboys" gives a solid performance by John Wayne, with excellent support from Roscoe Lee Browne and especially Bruce Dern.

John Wayne plays his role well as the aging rancher who needs to get his herd on the trail and has trouble finding help. He shows softer moments than is typical for him, and seems almost wistful at times.

The supporting cast of about a dozen boys who end up helping him do a pretty good job as well. When the film gets under way, the boys make you think you are in for a relatively smooth ride, but some of the later scenes get pretty intense.

Browne has the somewhat trite role of a wisdom-dispensing African-American, but he does have some good lines that he does well with. Whereas many films today might downplay the issue of his skin color, "The Cowboys" has fairly realistic reactions from a variety of people to a black man working in the West.

Bruce Dern comes off as one of the creepiest bad guys in a Western. In early scenes his (unnamed) character tries to pass himself off as smooth and sweet-talking, but eventually his true colors show, and he is downright scary. He has an especially frightening confrontation with one of the boys, and a wild-eyed showdown with John Wayne that really cements him as one of the worst bad guys ever played in a Western.

The story is pretty much by the book, with only one big surprise in a fight near the end. It also takes a little while to get going, but by the first scene with the boys in the corral, it hums along.

On the whole, a good Western with some excellent acting.

The Cowboys is directed by Mark Rydell and adapted from the novel written by William Dale Jennings; who co-writes the screenplay with Irving Ravetch & Harriet Frank Jr. It stars John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, Bruce Dern and Colleen Dewhurst. John Williams scores the music and Robert Surtees is the cinematographer. Plot sees Wayne as tough cattleman Wil Andersen, who after finding all his cowhands have fled to find their fortune elsewhere, is forced to use a bunch of green teenagers to get his beef to market. It's a journey of some distinction, for Wil, the boys and the villains who lurk on the edges of the frame.

If ever there was a John Wayne picture that was in need of serious critical reevaluation, both as a measure of his acting ability-and quality in film narrative, then The Cowboys is the one. It's a film that has been known to upset the liberal minded, where the ideology at its core has been lambasted as being objectionable in the least. Yet looking at it closely, away from the humour that does exist within, it finds the Duke at his most vulnerable, therefore believable, and at its centre it's a coming of age tale told with cynical coldness. During this cattle drive innocence will be lost, Andersen is tough and a disciplinarian, yet he's always a benevolent father figure. Wil himself hit the cattle drive trail at 13, he knows the pains and perils of such a task. He also knows that boys need to become men, especially out here in the wilderness. I'd be disappointed in a piece of Western genre cinema if it glossed over this fact. And The Cowboys doesn't, it has a sting in its tail, the trick is that the boys are not judged by how Wil taught them, but defined by a turn of events that calls on them to "man" up. The actions of another being the catalyst for childhood's ending.

Robert Surtees' photography paints a beautiful picture, it's pastoral, broad and appealing, but crucially it doesn't make it poetic. These young lads are entering the unknown, each section of God's great land is beautiful to us, but dangerous to them. It's an overlooked point that critics of the film ignore, that of Wil Andersen not leading these boys on a romantic trip thru the colourful terrain. It's not romantic, it's dangerous, and it's credit to Surtees that he achieves both sides of the coin; beauty and peril in the same frame. The young actors are, expectedly, a mixed bunch, but there's nothing here to be overtly negative about. Roscoe Lee Browne is terrific, his shift from wry observationalist to "Mother Hen" is handled with great skill, and Bruce Dern is memorable in more ways than one. The complaints come from not enough screen time for Colleen Dewhurst, who playing a bordello madame positively threatens to send the film's rating thru the roof (and the male viewers temperature's), while the running time is simply too long-too episodic-and quite frankly, unnecessary.

The Cowboys is not a perceived John Wayne macho based fantasy movie, it has meaning, depth, bravery and a first class performance from the Duke himself. 8/10

I've always had a feeling that John Wayne had some kind of health crisis and deliberately chose The Cowboys to be his swan song film. When it didn't work out that way, he went on and did some more until The Shootist.

Ever since his Oscar in True Grit, Wayne began playing men of his own age in his films and a common thread seemed to be imparting values to the next generations whether they wanted them or not. You can see that readily in films like Rio Lobo, Big Jake, Chisum, The Train Robbers, and Cahill, U.s. Marshal. Most especially in The Shootist with Ron Howard as his pupil.

But in The Cowboys he had a mess of pupils. Wayne's a hardworking rancher whose hands have deserted him because of a rumored gold strike. He has to get his cattle to market, so out of desperation he hires a bunch pubescent and pre-pubescent youngsters from the town.

The trail drive is quite the lesson for these kids. They learn about life that it is about hard work, responsibility, and keeping your given word. Wayne gets a second chance at fatherhood, he didn't do such a good job of it with his own two sons. More like grandfatherhood at his age, but the kids learn well.

Along as a second role model is Roscoe Lee Browne. Possessor of one of the greatest speaking voices in the English speaking world, Browne is the first black man they've ever met. In fact one of the kids uses the "N" word when first meeting him, out of ignorance more than racism. Browne sets them straight by example more than preaching.

The oldest two kids, A Martinez and Robert Carradine, have gone on to some considerable adult careers which they are still enjoying. All the kids are a winning bunch however.

A couple of the Duke's later westerns like The Train Robbers and Cahill I found to be flawed. Not so here. Director Mark Rydell keeps this one going at a good pace and does wonders with his cast of all ages.

Obviously, John Wayne had a long and distinguished career in the movies. Of course, he was merely playing himself time after time. In this movie, that works wonderfully well.

He plays Wil Anderson, a man in his 60s with little else he can do but hire a classroom of boys to help with a cattle drive. This makes for a fun outing for anyone in any age group. Roscoe Lee Browne is well cast here. His scene with Colleen Dewhurst is very well played. Bruce Dern is great, too!

My son, who is a big fan of "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones", pointed out the John Williams music in "The Cowboys"; it is very good indeed.

"The Cowboys" is my choice for the movie to introduce people to John Wayne. It definitely makes you want to see more! Out of four stars, I rate it: ***.5