The Cowboys (Deluxe Edition)
by Mark Rydell
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alfred Barker Jr., Bruce Dern, Colleen Dewhurst, John Wayne, Roscoe Lee BrowneDirector: Mark Rydell
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 135 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-05-22
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of The Cowboys (Deluxe Edition)
Movie Review: Excellent from top to bottom
Summary: 5 Stars
The Cowboys is, in my opinion, the most subtle, complete and compelling performance of John Wayne's career. As the taciturn ranch owner/cattleman Wil Andersen, he's had to bury his only two sons, admitting that either they went bad or he went bad on them. As his pending cattle drive approaches, his ranch hands desert him in order to strike it rich. Left with the daunting task of moving his cattle across country, he hires on 11 boys, none older than 15 years.
With a supporting cast overflowing with talent, including the school teacher played by Allyn Ann McLerie, the fickle, gold fevered ranch hand played by Matt Clark and of course Andersen's close friend and confidant Anse played by the immortal Slim Pickens, they all have extensive and decades long careers as excellent character actors.
Then there's the main cast. John Wayne is at his iconic best, with a performance as deep and compelling as he ever gave. I find that in many of his early films his performances are interesting to watch, but I personally can never get past the star to see the character. Even in his Oscar turn as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, he's a bit of a caricature to me. In The Cowboys, however, I believe 100% that he IS Wil Andersen.
Bruce Dern, who is also capable of delivering a performance which can be over the top, is truly evil and threatening in his role as "Long Hair". Check out the scene in which he ambushes a the young cowboy Dan and threatens him to within an inch of his life. Painful to watch, because it seems so true.
Roscoe Lee Browne is heartwarming as both a source of amazement for the boys and as their most staunch defender when it comes to Andersen's treatment of them. He plays a black man in the old west with grace, dignity, style and charisma like nobody else could have, not to mention having the most sonorous black male voice next to James Earl Jones.
Colleen Dewhurst makes a delightfully strong appearance as a madame in the plains in the center of the cattle drive. She is simply unforgettable.
Last but not least, there are the cowboys themselves. Many of them had never acted before, but were chosen for their expertise at riding and roping, most notably Clay O'Brien (Cooper) who was an 11 year old rodeo champ who looks in the film to be no older than 9. For 6 of the boys, this was their first film, and for some of those, their only film. A Martinez, Robert Carradine, Nicolas Bauvy, and Stephen Hudis, Steve Benedict, Norman Howell and Sean Kelly went on to careers as either actors, stunt players or both. Their honesty, presence and believability make this film a coming of age story like no other.
The film deals with many subjects. Honor, bravery, courage, dedication, respect, and love. We see a despondent Wil Andersen contemplating the graves of his sons early in the film and feel his sadness as he acknowledges his failure as a father. Later in the film as he addresses the boys for the last time, it becomes apparent that he has inadvertently been given a "second chance" at being a father and says what I'm sure he wished he had said to his actual sons. We also see early in the movie a battle between two bulls in which Andersen explains the dynamic between the two combatants. The young one has strength while the old one has experience. This scene foreshadows the later battle between Andersen and Long Hair. From Andersen, the boys learn the value of honor, courage, and dedication, while they in turn teach Andersen the meaning of compassion, with a little help from Nightlinger (Browne) as sort of a Jiminy Cricket.
The cinematography is splendid, with grand vistas of the open plain. The wardrobe and props seem to have come straight out of an old trunk found in a time capsule that had been buried long ago. The music elicits excitement, suspense and an entire catalog of other emotions, but that's no surprise as it was composed and conducted by the immortal John Williams, the most prolific and memorable composer in all of film history.
I own this movie and watch it frequently. Coming in at over two hours in length, the movie has not one wasted scene and never slows down. It's hard to believe that it's 131 minutes long, and when it's over, I always find myself wishing there was more.
If you've never seen The Cowboys, watch it and you'll be glad you did. If you have, watch it again and you'll be glad you did!
Summary of The Cowboys (Deluxe Edition)
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/30/2008 Run time: 134 minutesAlmost in spite of itself, The Cowboys has taken its place among John Wayne's most beloved films. It wasn't always that way: When it was released in January of 1972, the film was widely criticized for appearing to promote the notion that boys become men through violence. From a politically correct perspective, this apparent message is arguably deplorable (and some interpreted the film's young fighters as a reflection of young draftees into the Vietnam war), but there's no denying that The Cowboys remains as invigorating as it ever was, no matter how dubious its thematic implications. Based on a novel by William Dale Jennings, and adapted with Jennings by the married screenwriting team of Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. (whose impressive credits include Hud, Hombre, and Norma Rae), the movie opens with aging ranch owner Wil Anderson (Wayne) desperate for ranch-hands to herd 1,500 head of cattle across 400 miles of dangerous territory. With no better options, he reluctantly hires boys from the local schoolhouse (including Robert Carradine in his screen debut), and an experienced, worldly-wise cook named Nightlinger (played to perfection by Roscoe Lee Browne) joins the cattle drive--the first black man the boys have ever seen.
A Hollywood liberal who initially felt at odds with Wayne's right-wing politics, Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond) originally sought George C. Scott for the lead, but studio executives urged him to convince Wayne to take the role. It was a happy outcome for both, as Rydell directs Wayne with an enjoyable mixture of Old West humor and grizzled trail-hardiness, and The Cowboys is a top-drawer production with gorgeous cinematography (on location in Mexico and Colorado) by veteran cameraman Robert Surtees. Colleen Dewhurst appears briefly but memorably as the madam of a traveling troupe of prostitutes (in a scene often cut from earlier TV broadcasts and some home-video releases), and the young A Martinez (who would later star in several TV soap operas and the indie-hit Powwow Highway) makes a strong impression in a prominent supporting role. But the real reason for the film's lasting popularity is the hiss-worthy villainy of Bruce Dern (as "Long Hair," leader of the rustlers), who earned a dubious place in movie history for his character's cheating approach to gunplay. No matter how you interpret its themes of fatherly influence and justified vengeance, The Cowboys (later the basis of a short-lived TV series) is undeniably entertaining, dominated by Wayne's reliable presence and bolstered by a rousing, Copland-esque score by John Williams. --Jeff Shannon
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