The Cowboys (1972)
When Wil Andersen can find no men to help him move his herd to market (due to a sudden case of gold fever) he’s forced to take on a group of school boys. With himself and black cook Jedediah Nightlinger (Roscoe Lee Browne) the only adults, they set off for Belle Fouche.
The Cowboys is a coming of age story, as the boys undergo the hardships of the trail and learn what it means to be a “cowboy.” But it’s more than that; for Wayne’s Wil Anderson it’s about getting a second chance as a father. At one point he refers to his two dead sons, telling Nightlinger how “They went bad on me. Or I went bad on them.” It’s this fatherly relationship that is the heart of The Cowboys.
Wayne gives one of his very best performances here, he’s gruff and tough but also undeniably human. He has memorable scenes not just with the boys but with all the adult actors, from Sarah Cunningham as his wife to Bruce Dern as the film's villain, but it’s with Brown that he has his finest moments. The pair have a natural onscreen chemistry that makes even the simplest of scenes compelling. Nightlinger isn’t your standard black character in a western, he's an educated man, better educated than Wil Anderson in fact, and it makes a refreshing change.
Wayne told Bruce Dern that audiences would hate him for what his character does in the film and Dern turns in one of his very best performances as the psychotic Asa Watts. Watts is one of the best western villains, a truly loathsome character. His confrontation with Wayne is one of the film's highlights; violent and emotionally powerful, it ranks as the most shocking moment in any Wayne western.
The “cowboys” are all surprisingly good. Robert Carradine and A Martinez play the two eldest boys and both have gone on to successful acting careers while a couple of others have gone on to work as stuntmen. Clay O'Brien, who plays Hardy Fimps, would work with Wayne again in Cahill U.S. Marshal as his real son rather than just a surrogate one as he is here.
Mark Rydell’s direction is perfect. It’s no surprise that he handles the character moments so well, as that is his forte, having started out as as an actor, but he also does a great job with the action. He gives us a sense of the immensity of the task before the cowboys, with sweeping overhead shots showing just how big the country is. When the Wayne/Dern confrontation occurs, it's palpably tense and brilliantly staged with both actors giving their all.
Article comments
1 - Robert Ham
Great column. Duke's performance in The Cowboys is extraordinary. Thank you, Ian.