The Cowboys

For the outlaw Cowboys of Arizona, see The Cowboys (Cochise County).

The Cowboys
1972 movie poster
Directed by	Mark Rydell
Screenplay by	Irving Ravetch Harriet Frank, Jr.
Story by	William Dale Jennings
Produced by	Mark Rydell
Starring	John Wayne Roscoe Lee Browne Bruce Dern Colleen Dewhurst Slim Pickens
Cinematography	Robert Surtees
Edited by	Robert Swink Neil Travis
Music by	John Williams
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	January 13, 1972 (1972-01-13)
Running time	131 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$4.8 million

The Cowboys is a 1972 western motion picture starring John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, Slim Pickens, A Martinez and Bruce Dern. Robert Carradine makes his film debut with fellow child actor Stephen R. Hudis. It was filmed at various locations in New Mexico, Colorado and at Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank, California. Based on the novel by William Dale Jennings, the screenplay was written by Irving Ravetch, Harriet Frank, Jr., and Jennings, and directed by Mark Rydell.

Plot

File:TheCowboys1972.jpg

A screenshot from the film.

When his ranch hands abandon him to join a gold rush, rancher Wil Andersen (John Wayne) is forced to find replacement drovers for his yearly 400-mile (640 km) long cattle drive. He rides into deserted Bozeman, Montana. There, Anse Peterson (Slim Pickens) suggests using local schoolboys. Andersen visits the school but departs unconvinced. The next morning, a group of the boys show up at Andersen's ranch to volunteer for the drive. Andersen tests the boys' ability to stay on a bucking horse. As the boys successfully take turns, Cimarron (A Martinez), another young man slightly older than the others, rides up. After successfully subduing and riding the test horse, Cimarron gets into a fight with Slim, the oldest of the boys. Andersen, though impressed by Cimarron's abilities, has misgivings because of his angry nature and sends him away. Andersen reluctantly decides to hire the boys.

While Andersen and the boys prepare for the cattle drive, a group of mysterious men led by "Long Hair" Asa Watts (Bruce Dern) show up asking for work. Andersen catches Watts in a lie about his past, and refuses to hire them. Jebediah "Jeb" Nightlinger (Roscoe Lee Browne), a Black camp cook arrives with a chuck wagon, making Anderson's trail crew complete.

Under Andersen's continued tutelage, the boys learn to rope, brand and herd the cattle and horses. Much to Andersen's concern, Cimarron follows the drive from afar. However, while crossing a river, Slim slips off his horse and, unable to swim, starts to drown. Although Slim is saved by Cimarron, Andersen berates one of the boys for his stuttering problem which nearly caused Slim's death. The stuttering boy swears at Andersen repeatedly, losing his stutter in the process. Satisfied, Andersen decides to let Cimarron stay. During another episode, the boys steal Nightlinger whiskey and drink all of it, all of them getting severely drunk. Afterwards, one of the boys falls off his horse and his trampled to death by the herd. Slowly, the boys learn under Andersen's tutelage and become rather good cowhands, impressing both Andersen and Nightlinger.

Soon after, Mr. Nightlinger's chuck wagon throws a wheel. As the cowboys continue to drive the herd, Mr. Nightlinger stays behind to fix the chuck wagon. One of the boys, during the day, goes off trail to fetch a stray cow. There, he is jumped by Watts' gang. Watts gives the boy strict orders not to tell Andersen, to which the boy relucantly agrees. Watts lets the boy go. At evening a couple of days later though, Watts makes his prescence known to Andersen, shadowing the herd, and the boy confesses to Andersen about what heppened. After sending one of the boys to go fetch Mr. Nightlinger, telling him to bring his gun, Andersen gathers the other boys around and tells them not to be scared or afraid, and also tells them to expect Watts' gang to come in during the night.

Sure enough, Watts and his gang enter Andersen's camp at night. Watts forces Andersen to surrender his weapon and then reveals his intention to steal the herd and make himself and his gang rich. Andersen refuses to give up the herd, and Watts challenges Andersen to a fist fight in front of the boys and the cattle rustlers. Though both men fight hard and are bruised and bloodied, Andersen's better expierence pays off and he beats up Watts, humiliating him in front of the boys and his men. Angry, Watts picks up a revolver and shoots Andersen repeatedly, fatally wounding him. Watts and his men then steal the herd.

The next morning, Mr. Nightlinger arrives and the boys gather around a dying Andersen. Andersen tells the boys and Mr. Nightlinger that he's proud of all of them, and then dies. After a funeral, the boys gather up their firearms and tell Mr. Nightlinger that they are going to fetch back the herd. Mr. Nightlinger reluctantly joins them. Mr. Nightlinger sets up a ruse to distract the rustlers while the boys formulate a plan and move into position. Watts prepares to kill Nightlinger; just then the boys jump the rustlers and toss Nightlinger a gun. In the ensuing gunbattle, the rustlers are taken completely by surprise, and all are killed while Watts is wounded in the leg. Watts begs for mercy, but the boys tie him to a horse and then shoot a gun in the air, sending the horse running with a screaming Watts tied to it.

After the boys complete the drive to Belle Fourche and sell the cattle, they use some of the proceeds to pay a stonemason to carve a marker with Andersen's name and the legend "Husband and Father," in clear reference to the position that Andersen had earned in their lives. They place the marker in the approximate location of Andersen's grave and head for home.

Reception

The film depicts Wayne's cold-blooded killing as Anderson is shot in the back by Dern's Long Hair. During filming of this scene, Wayne warned Dern, "America will hate you for this." Dern wryly replied, "Yeah, but they'll love me in Berkeley."

Some critics debated the film's implication that boys become men or confirm their manhood through acts of violence and vengeance. Jay Cocks of Time Magazine and Pauline Kael of The New York Times were especially critical of these aspects of the film.

Television adaptation

In 1974, Warner Bros. developed The Cowboys as a television series for ABC starring Jim Davis, Diana Douglas, and Moses Gunn. David Dortort, best known for Bonanza, The High Chaparral, and The Restless Gun, produced the series. Only A Martinez, Robert Carradine, Sean Kelly and Clay O'Brien were in both the film and the television series. At the last moment, ABC decided to change the show's format by reducing its run-time from one hour to one half-hour, a change which made it difficult to tell stories effectively considering the show's large cast.

Cast

• John Wayne as Wil Andersen
• Roscoe Lee Browne as Jebediah Nightlinger
• Bruce Dern as Long Hair
• Colleen Dewhurst as Kate Collingwood - traveling madam
• Alfred Barker Jr. as Fats - Cowboy
• Nicolas Beauvy as Dan - Cowboy
• Steve Benedict as Steve - Cowboy
• Robert Carradine as Slim Honeycutt - Cowboy
• Norman Howell as Weedy - Cowboy (as Norman Howell Jr.)
• Stephen R. Hudis as Charlie Schwartz - Cowboy (as Stephen Hudis)
• Sean Kelly as Stuttering Bob - Cowboy
• A Martinez as Cimarron - Cowboy
• Clay O'Brien as Hardy Fipps - Cowboy
• Sam O'Brien as Jimmy Phillips - Cowboy
• Mike Pyeatt as Homer Weems - Cowboy
• Slim Pickens as Anse
• Lonny Chapman as Homer's Father
• Sarah Cunningham as Annie Andersen
• Allyn Ann McLerie as Ellen Price - teacher

See also

• List of American films of 1972

External links

• The Cowboys at IMDb
• The Cowboys at AllMovie
• The Cowboys at the TCM Movie Database