The Cowboys

Rating:
Summary: Who else could turn boys into cowboys but John Wayne?
Review: If you stop and think about it John Wayne actually made several westerns that took surprising twists. In "The Searchers," Wayne played Ethan Edwards, who spends the entire film tracking the neice who had been taken by Scar's band of raiders so that he can put a bullet in her brain, only to end up taking her home. But for his legion of fans, "The Cowboys" had to be the biggest surprise of all.

As rancher Wil Andersen, Wayne finds that his hands have left him to join a gold rush and he has no one to help him get his herd of cattle to market before winter. His only option are a group of young school boys, a hot headed young gun man named Cimarron (A Martinez), and an old cook named Jedediah Nightlinger (Roscoe Lee Browne). With hardly any training, Anderson and his "cowboys" hit the trail. But not only do they have to do deal with hundreds of heads of cattle, rattlesnakes, and the elements, there are also a gang of man led by Asa Watts (Bruce Dern) following them as well.

I think that Bruce Dern had a pretty good career after this 1972 film, which was in doubt at that time because his character shoots down John Wayne in cold blood, which was definitely not considered a smart career move at the time. Wayne warned Dern he would be hated and the young actor actually received death threats. A movie in which John Wayne actually dies is always something of a shock for movie goers (e.g., "Sands of Iwo Jima"), but usually that tragic fate is saved for the very end of the film and in "The Cowboys" there is still the entire final act of the story left to be told. The one thing you have to admit is that no other actor being killed off in the middle of a western could shock you more than the Duke.

Of the young cast of the film, Robert Carradine is the one name that sticks out the most as having made a career of acting. A few of the boys were cast in the short lived television series based on the movie but just as many did this one film and never acted again. However, the choice performances in "The Cowboys" come from the older cast members, with Brown's eloquent Mr. Nightlinger having a choice encounter with Colleen Dewhurst, who plays a madam escorting her stable of pretty young women to their next town of business. Of course, the young girls are interested in the young boys, but as she wisely declares, "The first time should be in the back of a buggy with a girl that they think they're in love with." Then there is his charming refusal, "I have the inclination, the maturity, and the where-with-all; but unfortunately, I don't have the time."

Of course Wayne's character slowly comes around to the idea that these young cowboys can actually get the job done, but the film requires them to complete their final rite of passage without him. This 1972 western provides Wayne with the final great fist fight of his career that say him make 174 films from 1926 when he was an uncredited Yale football player in "Brown of Harvard" to 1976 when he starred in his eloquent final film "The Shootist." When Andersen begins his final fight his tells his opponent: "I've broke my back once, and my hip twice. And on my worst day I could still beat the hell out of you." Yes, Bruce Dern must be a pretty good actor to survive shooting John Wayne in the back.

Rating:
Summary: the cowboys directors cut
Review: Dose anyone remember the way the cowboys movie really ends? Remember John Wayne asks his wife what she wanted? She said " You back safe and a string of blue glass beads". My wife and I have seen a version of the cowboys where the ending shows Mr.Nightlinger and the cowboys back at the double o ranch telling John Waynes wife what happened to him and giving her the blue beads they bought for her at John Waynes request. Has anyone seen this alt. ending of the cowboys or know where to get a vhs or dvd showing this ending?

Rating:
Summary: John Wayne as sort of a father figure in a story for all.
Review: Young boys would really love this movie I think. I bet it was popular when it came out. It's a very good family oriented western that is a bit about growing up and going out into the world and to face conflicts head on. It's just very good.

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Summary: Today's Youth Are Lost Without A John Wayne To Guide Them
Review: Today's youth are lost without John Wayne. The movie "The Cowboys" attests to the fact that the values of integrity, honesty, and strength of character is lacking in most movies made since this one was released in the early 70s. The moral fiber that Wayne's movies instilled in children growing up and the adults raising them during the days of yesteryear has not been rekindled in our new era of special effects, gory death and sport bloodletting. Wonder why America's children are selfish gangsters and the materialistic adults raising them are oblivious? Perhaps because the qualities of humanity, leadership, and social justice that were portrayed in movies like The Cowboys vanished from the screen when John Wayne died in the mid-seventies.

Whoever decided that "self-esteem" should be the priority of child-rearing practices, that the mouthing the term "respect" is more important than receiving natural consequences for bad behaviour, and that children are really small adults and not boys and girls should be forced to take that last ride with LongHair. You can keep The Terminator as your moral guide. I'll take John Wayne any day.

Watch it and see for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Real, human men - young and old
Review: I like a number of Wayne's movies, but this is his best - it's the one in which he is most human, most real, and most likeable: there's nothing of fantasy about the character, so he is accessible to any audience. It is also the western movie that respects young people the most. These young men are as real as they get - proud, ambitious, terrified, daring, on the road to manhood and not really sure what the scenery means. I envy anyone who hasn't seen this one yet - you're in for a treat.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Great Films
Review: Ignore the Amazon review above by Tom Keogh. This is a great film whether you are a western fan or not. It is one of the greatest westerns ever, in the same class as 'The Searchers', 'My Darlin' Clementine', 'Shane', 'High Noon', etc. It is also one of Wayne's best performances. (By the way, the film is 135 minutes long and Wayne's character is killed with approximately 30 or 35 minutes to go. Contrary to Keogh's and some readers' reviews, he is not in the movie "only a short time".)

I would have rated The Cowboys with 5 stars but the DVD picture appears to be a mere transfer from the VHS edition. (I used to own the laserdisc and remember that version's picture quality as much better than the DVD.) While the sound has been remastered, the picture has not been remastered/ restored. Frequently, through-out the movie, white marks and scratches appear on the screen. It's a shame that Warner Brothers did not release this film on DVD with the care and respect it deserves.

The special features are good but there is no commentary, and an update on the "boys" would have been nice.

Rating:
Summary: Superb, Modern, Late Duke
Review: "The Cowboys" was a fundemental change of direction for John Wayne in 1972, much in the way "True Grit" had been at the end of the sixties, and, in keeping with the trend towards more realistic progression in Cinema, Mark Rydell's film provided the aging Veteran with a role, that, while retaining epic scope, also had an edge to it, a more modern appearance and feel. No Monument Valley or even familier Batjac Players, co starring Roscoe Lee Browne, Slim Pickens, Colleen Dewhurst and Sarah Cunningham. Elmer Bernstein is replaced by a fantastic and moving John Williams score. It's a rite of passage story, which embraces regret, loss, caring, honour, violence, and ultimately morality and the vindication of that morality - even though such vindication sometimes comes at a very high price. The threat to morality and family is presented in the form of Bruce Dern, in an unforgettable and terrifying performance - and the suddness and brutality of that violence is very shocking indeed, much the same way as "Once Upon a Time in the West" was to Henry Fonda fans. Beautifully photographed on location by Robert Surtees,the DVD restores the Overture, Intermission and Exit music as it was in the Cinema, complete with Widescreen presentation. The film is also funny & intelligent, with the Cowboys of the title giving wonderful performances, although instead of a PG rating, I'd give it a PG-13 . Duke's final scene is perhaps one of the greatest He ever played. "The Cowboys" and "The Shootist" were the best movies of His late period.

Rating:
Summary: The paternal side of the Duke
Review: I suppose you could call this a sort of 'cult-classic' among John Wayne films. It is considered one of the Duke's best (maybe even THE best) by many people, yet many critics gave rather discouraging reviews of the film (see Amazon's Editorial review, for example).

This is an entertaining story about an old man who cannot hire enough men for his cattle drive, and who is forced to take along a group of boys instead. This film finds Wayne in a somewhat different role, for although he plays a cattleman (not unusual for the Duke), he also has a soft, paternal side not often seen in his films. This movie also differs in that Wayne does not emerge triumphant at the end of the film.

This is a great Western for any die-hard Western fan. Not only fans of Westerns will enjoy this movie, however. A great many people who do not like either the Duke or the Western genre thoroughly enjoy this movie, and perhaps that is what gives it such a lasting appeal.

Rating:
Summary: didn't work for me
Review: I don't consider this to be much of a JW movie since he was not in the story very much. It is the story of how a bunch of children overcome the odds to bring in the cattle. I once had it rated as 1 star but there is something to be learned in this story of perseverence. It is also a family friendly movie so I rate it 2 star -FAIR-.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Duke Movie
Review: This movie, although not directed/produced by Wayne, is probably the greatest film ever.

The movie begins with his hired hands, and much of the town, leaving when gold is struck nearby. The Duke is then faced with either waiting until next year to sell his cattle....or using the town's schoolboys for Cow"Boys".

This movie will touch every emotion you have! This is definately a CLASSIC!