The Cowboys
- John Wayne: Wil Andersen
- Roscoe Lee Browne: Jebediah Night Linger
- Bruce Dern: Asa Watts
- Colleen Dewhurst: Kate Collingwood
- Robert Carradine: Slim (Charles Honeycutt )
- Slim Pickens: Anse Petersen
- Lonny Chapman: Priest
- Charles Tyner: Mr. Jenkins
- Sarah Cunningham: Annie Andersen
- A Martinez: Cimarron
The Cowboys is an American movie from 1971 with John Wayne in the lead role. This is one of the few John Wayne Western, in which the he embodies the main character dies at the end of the film. Other films in which this happens are Alamo and the last sniper.
Action
Ironically, shortly before the annual cattle drive to Belle Fourche run rancher Wil Andersen, the driver away, because near a gold rush has broken out. Of necessity recruited the gnarled old man of the West local schoolboys for the heavy, tedious and dangerous task. Contrary to expectations, the boys prove themselves first. But they did not reckon with the fact that they sit a gang of cattle rustlers in the neck. Andersen is shot, robbed the herd of the bandits. Under the leadership of chef Jebediah the boys give battle, conquer back the herd and metzeln down the bandits. From the proceeds of the herd sold them eventually purchase a grave stone, which they set up in honor of their taskmaster in the wilderness.
Reviews
Joe Hembus noted that the film was John Wayne's " touching commitment to own legend, transience and immortality. " Phil Hardy calls the film "above average". The screenplay deliver " realistic insights into the sequence of a cattle drive ," but the end of the film was " unnecessarily melodramatic ."
More
The film was followed in 1974 still a TV series with the same title ( with Moses Gunn in the role of Jebediah ), in which the boys live on the ranch of a widow and work there. The series was broadcast in 1975 in ZDF.
Awards
The film won the Western Heritage Award in 1972.