ridiculous rating

Purely Joyful Movie!

Perfectly adorable

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

A rag-tag group of young teenagers volunteer to help John Wayne get his 1500 head of cattle to market, 400 miles away, and Wayne is stuck in a jam because all of his hired hands get the gold fever and run off. Faced with bills and the habit of driving his cattle every summer, Wayne takes on the role of drive master, mentor, teacher, and father to the lot of them. And the inexperienced teens prove resourceful and reliable, maturing quickly on the dusty trail. OK, none of the young actors in the film went on to any big Hollywood success. But, their limited acting skills actually added to the schtick of the set-up.Trailed and eventually ambushed by rustlers, the kids lose Wayne and their herd in a flurry of bullets that put the Duke in the grave. An endearing drive cook, Roscoe Lee Brown (cudos) steps up as the step-father of the crew, and the boys go after the rustlers to retrieve the herd in memory of Wayne.A good story, solid writing, and on-site cinematography make the movie, with Wayne's performance, of course. Direction is subpar, especially with the typical Hollywood intentional gaffs. The rustler gang consists of nine men, but after the boys ambush and kill four of them, there are suddenly ten members of the gang coming after them. It's annoying that directors want the viewer absorbed into the visual tale, but also to forgive the inconsistencies and the details. At some points along the drive, it looks like Wayne is really driving 1500 head. At other times, it looks like the entire herd is about 80 cattle, and at other times, it appears to consist of maybe 200 head. This kind of laziness in direction only serves to distract the viewer.All in all, a deserving film, with a young Bruce Dern playing a really, really bad outlaw. A typical Western prop character that you can really hate if you are into the action.A worthwhile two hours spent with a good film despite some flaws.

Released in 1972 and directed by Mark Rydell, "The Cowboys" stars John Wayne as an aging rancher who is forced to hire pubescent drovers for a 400-mile cattle drive from Bozeman, Montana, to Belle Fourche, South Dakota, after his ranch hands abandon him for a gold rush. Roscoe Lee Browne plays the wise black cook while Slim Pickens & Colleen Dewhurst have small roles. This is a realistic, almost epic Wayne Western focusing on the long cattle drive and the amateur boys learning to be men. It lacks the fun brawling and unrealistic elements of John's contemporary Westerns of the 60s-70s (e.g. the quick-draw nonsense in "El Dorado"). A Martinez stands out as the outcast Hispanic amongst the kids while Bruce Dern is notable as a menacing ne'er-do-well. The almost shocking confrontation that opens the final act is a highlight and the boys' just strategy is great: KILL 'EM ALL. The film runs 134 minutes and was shot in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Warner Brothers Burbank Studios, California. The screenplay was based on William Dale Jennings's novel. GRADE: A-

Lesser-known John Wayne gem.Set in the 1870s, a veteran rancher, Wil Anderson (played by John Wayne), needs to drive his large herd of cattle to market, over 600 kms away. However, his hired hands have deserted him for the goldfields. As a last resort he hires a group of boys from the local school as his drivers..."cowboys" in the truest sense of the word. What follows is a journey of discovery and a transformation of boys to men...Not your typical John Wayne movie. Wayne is less of the hero here, and more a paternal figure. After all, he was 65 years old when this movie was made, so his days of acting the invincible hero were behind him. However, for all the one-dimensional casting of him as a hero, here he shows a more balanced aspect to his acting. Interesting plot, with a dramatic, un-John Wayne-like twist near the end. Plot development, and some scenes, can be clumsy at times though.As mentioned, good performance from John Wayne. Good work from Bruce Dern, as the villain, plus all of the supporting cast, including the boys.

It was a great pleasure to see Duke enacting such a role than the usual roles of a cowboy. The supporting cast by Roscoe Lee Browne as a part of the crew and the schoolboys to drive the cattle drive were amazing and fun to watch. The way John Wayne guided those schoolboys were worth watching and funny as well especially the stutter scene. Meanwhile the role enacted by Bruce Dern as criminal/bandit is definitely praise worthy and it was encouraging to see him in a duel with the Duke. It would have been great to see him enacting the role of Bond Villain. At the same time of the scenes were quite emotional especially the scene before Duke's death was quite emotional and touching. Overall the film along with The Shootist is one of the best films of John Wayne in his career end. Even if a remake is made no one would be able to match up Duke in this role.