I was 15 when I saw The Cowboys (1972) at the theatre and I loved it. In fact, I even bought a cowboy hat! As a teen girl, I wasn't really the target audience (or maybe I was...all those cute boys!) Nevertheless, I fell in love with Robert Carradine and became a fan (The Big Red One, Revenge of the Nerds).
Since then I've seen The Cowboys many times. The cinematography is stunning and John Williams score is amazing. Shout out to Roscoe Lee Browne as the chuck wagon cook.
The story in a nutshell: A Montana cattle rancher (John Wayne) needs to take his herd on a 400 mile cattle drive and hires young boys as cowhands because all the men in the area have gold fever. An ex-con (Bruce Dern) and his cohorts steal the herd. SPOILER ALERT! Dern kills John Wayne and leaves the boys stranded. The boys decided to take matters into their own hands and get the herd back.
2 comments:
You hit these Friday Flick posts out of the park with a better record than Hank Aaron, Luana! I have grown to love John Wayne from the awkward near-youth in those early B Westerns to the iconic legend walking towards his last roundup in The Shootist; but I'll tell you, I hold a special place in my heart for all the Westerns the Duke did in the 70's. He was just so much bigger than life, and such a bona fide Movie Star, that he just sweeps you up as a viewer, puts you in his back pocket, and carries you along for a couple of hours. The Cowboys is one of his best - with a terrific, and mostly pretty down-to-earth story. Did you know it spawned a brief TV show version a couple of years later? Moses Gunn took over the Nightlinger role; most of the young men came back, including Bobby Carradine; and they got Clint Howard in there this time too! They got twelve episodes out before cancellation killed the show. Lovely choice, Ms. K!
Craig: So great to read your comments. I'm a fan of Westerns both old and new; wish they'd make them more often.
Yes, I think I remember the Cowboys TV show, but I didn't really like it. There was something about the movie that was magical and the TV show didn't have that spark.
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