I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Most of the time, a movie needs a really solid plot to truly be great. "The Cowboys" is an exception to this rule, however, as the acting of John Wayne, Bruce Dern, and the adolescent cast make this gritty Western stand the test of time.For a basic plot summary, "The Cowboys" sees rancher Wil Andersen (Wayne) deserted by his ranch hands just days before a big scheduled cattle drive. In a bind, Andersen takes on a group of schoolboys to help him bring in the herd. Along the way, key roles also include a Mexican "mistake of nature" teenager named Cimarron (A Martinez), a Negro cook (Roscoe Lee Browne), and a slimy ex-con "Long Hair" (Dern) determined to get the best of Andersen and his rather motley crew.As I mentioned, this film is a bit short on plot in terms of believability. It isn't "gritty" in the sense of portraying stark reality.However, director Mark Rydell more than makes up for this hole by conjuring up some of The Duke's greatest emotive scenes ever caught on camera. The chemistry between Wayne and Dern is unmatched in the history of Duke movies, while his changing relationship with the boys is quite an emotional journey for the viewer.Yet, at the same time, this isn't a purely "dark" movie by any means. It contains quite a bit of humor and levity which perfectly balances out those scenes that are so poignant and utterly humorless.Overall, I can confidently put "The Cowboys" in my list of top Westerns. It has terrific acting, a good mix of camaraderie/emotion, plays on many themes such as boys becoming men, how to deal with evil in its basest form, and the kind of life being a cattle rancher/driver was all about.

This movie portrays an aging cattleman working with young boys to drive his cattle herd to market. The interaction between the rancher, the boys, the cook (excellently played by Roscoe Lee Brown) and the villains all fit together well and quite believable.This is one of the best movies I have ever seen. Not only is it a great movie, it presents John Wayne in one of his best roles. While it has been six decades since I was the age of the boys portrayed in this movie, I still identify with the feelings expressed by them in their roles.It is a straight story with no hidden agenda. Other reviewers have summarized the story quite well, so I won't go into detail here. The story is not likely to have actually occurred, even in part, in the old west. But it is believable enough that it could have. There is sympathy, action and, and best of all, good character development. There are villains, good guys and heroes. The story line weaves it all together very well.There are no pyrotechnics nor any great special effects. The message is in the dialog and interaction amongst the characters. There is something else that happens in this movie that few other movies include. It has a few throw-away scenes that add to the viewers enjoyment, but don't necessarily affect the theme of the story. One such occurrence is early in the film when Will Anderson explains the struggle between two bulls in the cattle herd.This is a well done movie topped off with a great John Williams score. i recommend it to everyone of all ages.

Bruce Dern(as "Long Hair'), despite limited screen time, steals this one, as the charismatic, sassy talking, intimidating bully leader of an otherwise silent band of rustlers that smell easy pickings from Wil Anderson's(Duke Wayne) 1500 head of cattle, being driven 400 miles to market by a dozen greenhorn schoolboys, headed by Wil and his African American cook(Roscoe Lee Browne). Dern's verbal and physical bullying of small bespectacled Dan, alone out in the bush, is especially memorable. Of course, Long Hair is eventually exposed as cowardly, picking on a combination of an old man and boys to intimidate, getting beat in a rough and tumble with 'Old Ironpants' Wayne, then shooting Wayne multiple times with his back turned. Later, he and his gang are outwitted and outgunned by a combination of Browne and the boys, after Duke says his dying farewell speech. Of course, Anderson would have nixed any idea of the boys acting hostile toward the sizable outlaw gang. He already had lost one boy from trampling. Browne, as Anderson's apparent successor as the boys immediate father figure, was of the same mind, but the boys weren't going to let him interfere with their determination to extract revenge from the rustlers. Thus, he eventually gives in and presumably supplies most of the ideas on how to defeat the crooks and get back the cattle and horses. First, they need a few more horses, thus lure a few of the herd-flanking bandits into ambushes in the woods. Then, they lure the remaining bandits into an ambush, hiding behind boulders and vegetation around a strategically-placed chuck wagon, with Browne cooking supper. How could the bandits be so stupid as to ride into this ambush? They didn't know that a locked chest of firearms was in the chuck wagon, having previously disarmed Duke of the only apparent firearm in the party. Thus, they weren't expecting the possibility of a gun ambush, especially from a bunch of boys. Also, some of the boys stampeded the extra horses through the camp just before the bullets began to fly, adding to the confusion. Still, it would have been more convincing if we had seen Duke instruct the boys on using their firearm, before the drive began. On the other hand, that probably would have scared off the parental approval of this already dangerous undertaking. This is a major detail that is totally ignored. It's just assumed that all the parents agreed to this dangerous mission, without a whimper. Just when and where did this venture supposedly take place? We have several inconsistent clues. Duke's ranch is north of Yellowstone Park, near Bozeman, and he is driving his herd toward Belle Fourche, SD. This town began to become a major cattle shipment depot in 1890, although there was a blip of local food demand in the 1876-8 period, relating to the Black Hills gold rush. There is a gold rush that has siphoned off all the ranch hands. Where? His ranch hands say not far from Bozeman. Well, there was a major gold rush to this general area in the 1863-6 period. At one point, Duke says he is going to Fort Smith to check on the Sioux situation. Well, the Ft. Smith in south central MT only existed for a year or so around 1866! It was built in connection with the MT gold rush, then abandoned, due to Sioux demands. But Duke says his deceased sons would now be around 40, and their grave markers say they were born in '37 and '38, which would mean this is around '77, during the Black Hills gold rush! In conclusion, the historical clues don't add up, but '76-'78 is clearly the consensus. The film was actually shot in several locations in NM and SW Colorado.This is a rather long film, thus the director thought it merited an opening overture, with a pitch black screen, and an intermission. The opening credits begin rather dramatically with the blackness of the overture gradually becoming a sunrise, as a horse herd thunders by... 5 riders show up at Wil's ranch house to say that they are debating whether to join his other former hands in taking a chance in the gold fields. Wil tells them to get off his property, leaving him with no hands. Later, he says his deceased sons were failures, or maybe he failed them. Would have been nice to know what he meant and how they died, the same year: '58. Bloody Kansas? Browne comments that he now has a second chance, with all these boys.In a film with very little screen time involving women and no budding romance, Collen Dewhurst was very lucky to get 4th billing as the head madame of an itinerant group of prostitutes the boys happen upon out in the wilderness. This brief episode didn't lead anywhere and was best deleted.Long Hair is sometimes interpreted as a stand in for the anti-war hippies when this film was made. Instead of shooting him, the boys opt for a much more painful death, befitting his treatment of 'Old Ironpants' and others.

Any western with the legendary John Wayne is worth a glance. "On Golden Pond" director Mark Rydell's cattle drive opera "The Cowboys" is as offbeat an oater as you'll ever see. When a veteran rancher loses his hired hands because they'd rather pan for nuggets than push steers, he takes on school children to serve as his drovers. The premise is fresh and like nothing John Wayne ever tried during his long career in the cinema. Basically, "The Cowboys" is "Red River" with youngsters. This existential tale of initiation about boys becoming men is memorable because the kids are all interesting characters in their own right. Actually, Rydell and two-time Oscar-nominated scenarists Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr have fashioned a western that is politically incorrect as you imagine. After the villainous Bruce Dern shoots John Wayne multiple times in the back, the kids exact vengeance on Dern and his dastards by killing them all in an ambush. The last thing that you'd expect to see in a John Wayne is children brutalized and then brutalizing men twice their age without a qualm. Robert Surtees lensed this sprawling outdoors saga and even the scenes on the Warner Brothers sound stage in Burbank look spectacular. "Star Wars" composer John Williams provides an orchestral score that enhances not only the suspense but also develops the characters, especially the villains. The scribes borrow from other films. For example, the subplot involving Long Hair (Bruce Dern) who threatens one boy, Dan, is reminiscent of Charles Dickens "Great Expectations." The kids are a tyke-sized collection of "The Magnificent Seven," and the subplot about the outcast Mexican who isn't hired immediately but who tags along in their wake is like Horst Buchholz's young gunslinger in the classic Sturges' film. The boys experience just about everything you can imagine. They ride, rope, curse, shoot, and kill. Colleen Dewhurst has a cameo as a madam. Bruce Dern makes a terrific villain and he told Rydell that he believes he ruined his career when he killed Wayne in a particularly bloody scene.