When the dust settled, Wayne had given one of his best performances. "In The Cowboys," Rex Reed wrote, "all the forces that have made him a dominant personality as well as a major screen presence seem to combine. Old Dusty Britches can act." Co-starring the equally memorable Roscoe Lee Browne, Colleen Dewhurst and Bruce Dern, The Cowboys is exciting proof.
 
"One of John Wayne's better latter-day westerns..."  At-A-Glance Film Reviews
"An engaging late John Wayne Western..."  Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
"...Wayne is in top form."  Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
"Old Dusty Britches can act."  Rex Reed, The Observer
"Offbeat and intriguing. Well performed and beautifully shot."  Time Out Film Guide
 


Editor's Note

After his cowhands desert him for a nearby gold rush, aging, leather-tough rancher Will Anderson (John Wayne) resorts to hiring 11 schoolboys to help him on a 400-mile cattle run. Setting off with the boys and an eloquent but equally tough black cook (Roscoe Lee Browne), Anderson must get his cattle to their destination while contending with the wilderness and a psychotic, vengeful ex-con (Bruce Dern) who is out to get him. With an amazingly natural performance by Wayne, this stylized, action-packed Western is exquisitely filmed, emotionally sensitive, and highly entertaining. Director Mark Rydell gets solid performances out of not just Wayne (in one of his later screen roles) and Browne, but the group of youngsters accompanying them on the journey, as well as actors like Slim Pickens and Colleen Dewhurst who play smaller supporting roles. Close attention is also paid to the natural beauty of the mountains, wild mustangs, and other often overlooked standard Western fare.


Plot Summary

In director Mark Rydell's THE COWBOYS, a veteran rancher hires a group of young boys to drive his cattle to market after his regular hands desert him. The length of the trip and the unwieldly herd of cattle make for an impromptu classroom on the range, complete with attacking outlaws.