The Cowboys

When his ranch hands abandon him to join a gold rush, aging rancher William ‘Wil’ Andersen (John Wayne) is forced to find replacement drovers for his upcoming 400-mile (640 km) long cattle drive. He rides into deserted Bozeman, Montana. There, his friend Anse Peterson (Slim Pickens) suggests using local schoolboys. Andersen visits the school but departs unconvinced by the boys' immature behavior.

The next morning, the boys arrive at Andersen's ranch to volunteer for the drive. Andersen reluctantly 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 (Robert Carradine), the oldest of the boys, after Cimarron refers to Slim's mother as a prostitute. Andersen, though impressed by Cimarron's abilities, has misgivings because of his angry nature and sends him away. With no other options, Andersen decides to hire the boys.

While Andersen and the boys prepare for the cattle drive, a group of mysterious men led by Asa "Long Hair" 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 Andersen's trail crew complete.

Under Andersen's continued tutelage, the boys learn to rope, as well as brand and herd the cattle and horses. They then depart on the drive. Cimarron follows the group from afar, slightly nettling Andersen. While crossing a river, Slim slips off his horse and, unable to swim, starts to drown. Cimarron appears, charges his horse into the river, and saves him. Andersen then berates one of the boys, Bob, for his stuttering problem, which prevented him from sounding an alarm and almost cost Slim his life. Andersen levels an ultimatum to Bob to either quit stuttering immediately or go back home. Angered at the treatment he receives, Bob swears at Andersen repeatedly - losing his stutter in the process. Satisfied, Andersen decides to let Cimarron and Bob stay.

As the cattle drive progresses, the boys steal Nightlinger's whiskey and drink it, becoming merrily drunk then severely hungover. Afterwards, one of the boys, Dan, discovers a gang of cattle rustlers led by Watts are secretly trailing the herd but is threatened with a slit throat by Watts if he says anything. Dan later drops his glasses, and one of the boys falls off his horse retrieving them and is trampled to death by the herd.

Slowly, the boys become rather good cowhands through their experiences and Andersen's guidance, impressing both adults.

Soon after, the chuck wagon throws a wheel. While the others continue on, Homer is ordered to stay behind with Nightlinger to help with repairs. Watts and his gang are then seen paralleling the herd. Knowing their intentions, Andersen sends a boy, Weedy, back to find Nightlinger, with instructions to make his way back to the herd as soon as possible. Andersen then gathers the boys together to ready them for the unavoidable confrontation.

That night, Watts' gang surrounds Andersen and the boys in their camp, delivering a battered Weedy. After forcing Andersen to surrender his gun, Watts recognizes Dan, and taunts him in front of the boys, who remain passive, as instructed. When Watts crushes Dan's glasses, Andersen intervenes, leading to a brutal fist fight. Watts initially dominates, but Andersen gains the upper hand and triumphs by beating Watts' head against a tree. After he comes to, an infuriated Watts grabs a gun from one of his men and announces his intention to kill Andersen. Andersen turns and walks away, further infuriating Watts, who wings the unarmed man in both arms and the leg before shooting him twice in the back. The rustlers steal the herd and abandon the boys.

The following morning Nightlinger and Homer catch up to the group and find the boys tending to Andersen, then near death. With his last breaths Andersen tells the boys how proud he is of all of them, and that every man wants his children to be better than he was, as they have proven themselves. Following Andersen's burial the boys overpower Nightlinger on a prearranged signal and seize a sizable cache of firearms stored in his wagon. They vow to avenge Andersen's death and finish the trail drive as they had been hired.

When the group catches up to the rustlers, Nightlinger offers to help the boys make a plan. Using ruses and trickery the boys, who instantly morph into skilled killers, lure three of the outlaws to grisly silent deaths, then draw Watts and the rest of his gang into an ambush. In the ensuing shootout all of the rustlers are killed but Watts, while not a child was harmed in the least. Watts is pinned beneath his horse with a broken leg, his other entangled in its stirrup. Rather than kill him outright, or help him, he is sent dragging and drowning to his death in a nearby riverbed by spooking his horse with a shot.

After the boys complete the drive to Belle Fourche, South Dakota and sell the cattle, they have a stonemason carve a marker with Andersen's name and the inscription "Beloved Husband and Father", a reference to the paternal role Andersen came to hold in their lives. They then place the marker in the approximate location of his grave and head for home, accompanied by Nightlinger.

Robert Carradine made his film debut with fellow child actor Stephen Hudis as cowboys. The picture was filmed at various locations in New Mexico, Colorado, and at Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank, California.

The Cowboys earned generally positive reviews from critics, earning an 80% score on Rotten Tomatoes from 15 reviews. The film received praise for the musical score, original plot, and John Wayne's performance.

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 Yorker were especially critical of these aspects of the film.[7]

Film historian Emanuel Levy noted that Wayne frequently appears in a fatherlike role:

"Aware of his repetitive screen roles as a paternal figure, [Wayne] said the movie was based on a formula that worked in Goodbye Mr. Chips and Sands of Iwo Jima. In all three films, an adult takes a group of youngsters and initiates them into manhood by instructing them the 'right' skills and values. Wayne did not hesitate to appear in The Cowboys, despite the fact that 'no actor in his right mind, would try to match the antics of eleven kids on screen,' but for him it became 'the greatest experience of my life.'"[8]

The film won the Bronze Wrangler Award (best theatrical motion picture of the year) from the Western Heritage Awards.

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

• 2005: AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – Nominated[9]
• 2006: AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – Nominated[10]

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; the first two reprised their roles from the film, but the latter two did not. At the last moment, ABC decided to change the show's format by reducing its run time from one hour to a half hour, a change which made it difficult to tell stories effectively with the show's large cast. Only 13 episodes were filmed before the series was cancelled.

• List of American films of 1972

[1]

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