Un cow-boy à Hawaï

It has the benefit of being one of the most Kauai-intensive movies ever filmed. Not only was 90% of the movie actually made on that beautiful Hawaiian island, but it's actually SET there, too -- and there are very few movies both shot AND set in Hawaii.

The photography is excellent; the score is very good (but would have been better with a little more island influence), and the use of the Kauai locations, though limited to just a few, is first-rate. Garner is fine, and Culp makes a good, if foggily-motivated, villain.

However, the attitude toward the Hawaiians is painfully paternalistic, and there's a stupid, TRULY stupid, subplot involving "sorcery" and some extremely improbable caves, full of Tahitian statuary. Very bad idea.

Historically, it's a bit muddled; much is made of the idea that no one has found a way to load cattle aboard a schooner at this time. (Somewhere around 1870, I guess.) But over on the Big Island, this problem had been licked, and the founder of the Parker Ranch was already getting rich selling King Kamehameha's "big dogs.

If the script had been better, with a less predictable story, THE CASTAWAY COWBOY could have been a little gem. As it is, it's mostly a pretty time-passer.

I thought it was Australia? Oh ... that was Support Your Local Sherrif, and there is a lot of that character in James Garner's performance in this film.

Garner looks a bit heavier and a bit slower in this film, as the injuries he'd suffered in previous roles started to catch up to him. This was just before Rockford, where he often moved like an old man because of them.

This is a great fish out of water film, and the novelty is it works both ways. Garner's Costain, rescued after he escaped from a ship that shanghaied him, finds himself totally out of place among the native Hawaiians, and on a potato farm.

Once Mrs. MacAvoy (Vera Miles) learns she might leverage some wild cattle into saving her failing farm, she convinces Costain to retrain her farm hands as cowboys. That's the second fish out of water element, because the Hawaiians initially don't fare too well as cowpokes. :-)

But with training mishaps, witch doctoring, and having to figure out how to load cattle on ships with no docks available, Costain almost gives up.

Garner is always a good watch. I've never been disappointed.

James Garner and the Disney Corporation may not sound like a likely mix, but it did happen - twice, as a matter of fact. In 1973, Garner and Disney made a two movie agreement. Garner was looking for flavorful movie vehicles, and Disney was looking for a major star in order to regain the audience it had lost since Walt Disney's death several years earlier. But everyone's expectations were not met. The first movie, "One Little Indian", did not wow critics or audiences, and the same fate was met with "The Castaway Cowboy". It has an interesting premise - starting a cattle ranch in Hawaii during the days cowboys were kings - but the execution is severely lacking. It has a real sedate, almost boring tone for the most part. Both kids and adults will be restless. Almost nothing is done with Robert Culp's villain character - his footage can't add up to more than five minutes. It's only Garner's charisma that saves the movie from total decay, but even he can only do so much. Word of warning to parents: While the movie got a "G" rating in 1974, the movie would get a "PG" rating today due to a couple of violent fistfights.

Perfectly watchable Disney fare. You can read the lot points elsewhere. But two things stood out that I winced at, the Hawaiians were simplistic and stereotyped as childlike innocents lazy folks, and the cattle were treated atrociously.

I love the movies Holiday Inn and Song of the South, uh.... except for the Blackface Minstrel number in the former and the "happy slave" trope in the later.

Castaway Cowboy is really nothing special at all. I saw it as a kid in '74, and forgot its plot. Now I'll remember the plot because a lot more sensitive to the suffering of sentient beings, animals AND people.

"The Castaway Cowboy" begins with Mr. Costain (James Garner) washing ashore on the island of Kaua'i in the Hawaiian Islands back in 1850. It seems that Costain was kidnapped and forced to work on a ship...and he availed him a chance to escape by jumping overboard.

Soon Costain is befriended by a widow and her son. The MacAvoys have a large plantation there, but it's being underutilized and the crops are failing. Costain has an idea...why try to make pennies on crops when there are dollars to be make cattle ranching. This film is about the difficulties encountered trying to make a go of it. Some of the difficulties were cultural, some were definitely man-made.

In 2022, this film might be seen as a bit politically incorrect in the somewhat paternalistic way the Hawaiians are portrayed....and Disney+ mentions this on a tacked-on prologue. Fortunately they have NOT trimmed the film. I also noticed near the end that Costain was using a revolver...something pretty much impossible in Hawaii at the time. The revolver wasn't mass produced until the 1850s...and finding one in 1850 in such an out of the way place seems more than just unlikely. Not a major problem...just something this history teacher noticed.

All in all, a decent movie...especially since in the 20th century Kaua'i DID become a big cattle producing island! Yep..cowboys and cattle on the island!