The Cowboys

"All they wanted was their chance to be men... and he gave it to them."

1972 2h 14m EN

👍

7.1

SOLID

★7.1TMDB · 277

WesternAdventureDramaAction

Synopsis

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When his cattlemen abandon him for the gold fields, rancher Wil Andersen is forced to take on a collection of young boys as his cowboys in order to get his herd to market in time to avoid financial disaster. The boys learn to do a man's job under Andersen's tutelage, however, neither he nor the boys know that a gang of cattle thieves is stalking them.

“All they wanted was their chance to be men... and he gave it to them.”

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Cast

John Wayne
Wil Andersen
Roscoe Lee Browne
Jebediah Nightlinger
Bruce Dern
Long Hair
Colleen Dewhurst
Kate
Alfred Barker Jr.
Cowboy Fats
Nicolas Beauvy
Cowboy Dan
Steve Benedict
Cowboy Steve
Robert Carradine
Cowboy Slim Honeycutt

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Mark Rydell
Writers: Irving Ravetch, William Dale Jennings, Harriet Frank Jr.
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

54 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Mark Rydell, shot by Robert Surtees. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by John Williams. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Neil Travis shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

John Wayne and Roscoe Lee Browne and Bruce Dern carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "All they wanted was their chance to be men... and he gave it to them.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0068421 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Mark Rydell directs. Robert Surtees behind the camera. John Williams scores. Neil Travis cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

154 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Directed by Mark Rydell, shot by Robert Surtees. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by John Williams. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Neil Travis shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5John Wayne and Roscoe Lee Browne and Bruce Dern carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "All they wanted was their chance to be men... and he gave it to them.".
7IMDB entry: tt0068421 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 13 themes, including "based on novel or book", "montana", "ranch", "beef".

The technical file

Cinematography: Robert Surtees
Original score: John Williams
Editing: Neil Travis
Production design: Philip M. Jefferies
Costume design: Anthea Sylbert
Makeup / hair: Dave Grayson
Runtime: 134 min · 2h 14m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $6,000,000
Box office: $7,500,000
Return: 125% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: The Cowboys (1972)

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Mark Rydell

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2019-05-29
★ 8/10
The Breaking of Boys and the Making of Men. The Cowboys is directed by Mark Rydell and adapted from the novel written by William Dale Jennings; who co-writes the screenplay with Irving Ravetch & Harriet Frank Jr. It stars John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, Bruce Dern and Colleen Dewhurst. John Williams scores the music and Robert Surtees is the cinematographer. Plot sees Wayne as tough cattleman Wil Andersen, who after finding all his cowhands have fled to find their fortune elsewhere, is forced to use a bunch of green teenagers to get his beef to market. It's a journey of some distinction, for Wil, the boys and the villains who lurk on the edges of the frame. If ever there was a John Wayne picture that was in need of serious critical reevaluation, both as a measure of his acting ability-and quality in film narrative, then The Cowboys is the one. It's a film that has been known to upset the liberal minded, where the ideology at its core has been lambasted as being objectionable in the least. Yet looking at it closely, away from the humour that does exist within, it finds the Duke at his most vulnerable, therefore believable, and at its centre it's a coming of age tale told with cynical coldness. During this cattle drive innocence will be lost, Andersen is tough and a disciplinarian, yet he's always a benevolent father figure. Wil himself hit the cattle drive trail at 13, he knows the pains and perils of such a task. He also knows that boys need to become men, especially out here in the wilderness. I'd be disappointed in a piece of Western genre cinema if it glossed over this fact. And The Cowboys doesn't, it has a sting in its tail, the trick is that the boys are not judged by how Wil taught them, but defined by a turn of events that calls on them to "man" up. The actions of another being the catalyst for childhood's ending. Robert Surtees' photography paints a beautiful picture, it's pastoral, broad and appealing, but crucially it doesn't make it poetic. These young lads are entering the unknown, each section of God's great land is beautiful to us, but dangerous to them. It's an overlooked point that critics of the film ignore, that of Wil Andersen not leading these boys on a romantic trip thru the colourful terrain. It's not romantic, it's dangerous, and it's credit to Surtees that he achieves both sides of the coin; beauty and peril in the same frame. The young actors are, expectedly, a mixed bunch, but there's nothing here to be overtly negative about. Roscoe Lee Browne is terrific, his shift from wry observationalist to "Mother Hen" is handled with great skill, and Bruce Dern is memorable in more ways than one. The complaints come from not enough screen time for Colleen Dewhurst, who playing a bordello madame positively threatens to send the film's rating thru the roof (and the male viewers temperature's), while the running time is simply too long-too episodic-and quite frankly, unnecessary. The Cowboys is not a perceived John Wayne macho based fantasy movie, it has meaning, depth, bravery and a first class performance from the Duke himself. 8/10
CinemaSerf2025-02-26
★ 7/10
“Anderson” (John Wayne) is left short-handed by a gold rush and with his herd to get to market has to resort to engaging the services of a class of school boys who are offered $50 each if they help out. None of those lads are much over fifteen and few have any experience wrangling, so it’s going to be a tough challenge. Fortunately the veteran “Nightlinger” (Roscoe Lee Brown) happens by and agrees to bring along his wagon to help play nursemaid - and off they go. What they don’t appreciate, though, is that a group of would-be rustlers are in pursuit of their cows and when they discover the team doing the work are barely out of diapers, they become emboldened and set about stealing the cattle. The question is: can this motley and inexperienced team fend off the maniacal “Long Hair” (Bruce Dern) and his mercenaries? On the face of it, this could have been a disaster - but the chemistry between Wayne and Browne is a little reminiscent of his with Walter Brennan and helps steer this along quite entertainingly with decent efforts too from the lads doing the work. Interestingly, there is no sign of a Mitchum or a Wayne Jr amidst the cast of youngsters, but Nicolas Beauvy does well as do the rest as their trail turns from one of profit to one of revenge. It’s sentiment-free action film with a message of self-reliance and independence underpinned by a tough-love style of humanity that Wayne delivers well as “Anderson” faces one of his more menacingly played foes from an on-form Dern. Don’t be put off by the billing, it’s quite a tough drama and worth a watch.