The Cowboys (1972)

After his ranch hands abandon him to investigate a gold rush, an aging rancher (John Wayne) is reduced to using inexperienced boys (ages 9 to 15) to help get his cattle to market 400 miles away with only a black cook (Roscoe Lee Browne), the only other adult. Based on the novel by William Dale Jennings and directed by Mark Rydell (THE ROSE). This is a solid western until the end when it becomes problematic with baby faced killers avenging their father figure's murder. While this serves as a catharsis for the audience (which accounts for the film being a big hit), thematically I found it disturbing in much the same way I found STRAW DOGS disturbing the year before. But Mark Rydell is no Sam Peckinpah so there isn't any artistry to redeem the dubious implications that manhood is achieved through violence (Hoffman's milquetoast in STRAW DOGS, the callow boys here). That being said, Wayne gives one of his strongest performances here. It's not the typical Wayne hero. He's flawed and questions his abilities and rare for a Wayne western, he's mortal. As the chuck wagon cook, Roscoe Lee Browne brings an actor's gravitas and shadings that aren't in the script. As for the young boys, they're all pretty much ciphers here. The film's worst performance comes from Bruce Dern's villain, who seems right out of a DIRTY HARRY movie. The score by John Williams brings some flair to the film. With Colleen Dewhurst, Slim Pickens, Allyn Ann McLerie, David Carradine, Sarah Cunningham and A. Martinez.