Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Lesser-known John Wayne gem.Set in the 1870s, a veteran rancher, Wil Anderson (played by John Wayne), needs to drive his large herd of cattle to market, over 600 kms away. However, his hired hands have deserted him for the goldfields. As a last resort he hires a group of boys from the local school as his drivers..."cowboys" in the truest sense of the word. What follows is a journey of discovery and a transformation of boys to men...Not your typical John Wayne movie. Wayne is less of the hero here, and more a paternal figure. After all, he was 65 years old when this movie was made, so his days of acting the invincible hero were behind him. However, for all the one-dimensional casting of him as a hero, here he shows a more balanced aspect to his acting. Interesting plot, with a dramatic, un-John Wayne-like twist near the end. Plot development, and some scenes, can be clumsy at times though.As mentioned, good performance from John Wayne. Good work from Bruce Dern, as the villain, plus all of the supporting cast, including the boys.

. . . John Wayne, as Wil Anderson (and without irony), tells one of the impressionable youngsters under his tutelage in THE COWBOYS. These words of wisdom come not long after Wil's shouted at a sobbing 10-year-old, "Listen to me, you whining little whelp, you're going to stop that stutter or get the Hell out of here!" Does anyone else see a disconnect here? Of course, it's easy for a scriptwriter to command a child actor WITHOUT A REAL LIFE STUTTER to be instantly "cured" of that "character defect" by "Il Duce's" verbal abuse. In Real Life, Wayne set himself up as a dictator of "American" Values, thinking that if his Big Mouth simply shouted, "Stop being a stutterer! Stop being Gay! Stop being Jewish! Stop being Black! Stop being Liberal! Stop loving our Constitution! Just stop Thinking!" loud enough, he'd be a Big Man in a country carved in His likeness. Wayne famously bad-mouthed Gary Cooper's heroic HIGH NOON sheriff for asking supposedly "ill-suited" ADULTS to form a posse in the face of an existential threat to the entire town. Wayne and his fellow traveler, director Howard Hawks, made RIO BRAVO as a "rebuttal" to HIGH NOON. Now, a few years after RIO BRAVO, Wayne plays a rancher who Shanghais a group of ILL-SUITED 10-year-old BOYS for life-threatening grown-up work just because this rancher is facing a PERSONAL financial setback. Naturally, given Wayne's Real Life prejudices, it's the ill-suited Jewish 10-year-old who dies because of the rancher's hare-brained scheme. Mr. Wayne, have you no decency?!

Rancher Wil Andersen (John Wayne) needs to bring his cattle to market. Only all his ranch hands have run off to chase the latest gold rush. He has no choice but use a bunch of boys to do a man's job. He, the boys, and the cook Jebediah Nightlinger (Roscoe Lee Browne) have to face obstacles including bandits led by Long Hair (Bruce Dern).It's late in the Duke's career, but he still has his swagger. There are a few too many boys. Some of them tend to blend together. It's a minor problem. As for the villain, Bruce Dern is great as both a weasel and a menace. Sometimes we don't get both. This time we get a good portion of both.There is some good cattle driving action. The final fight is a little bit hokey. I wish for some dirty gritty action. But it's good enough. The best scene occurs a little earlier with Bruce Dern facing off against the Duke. That is a classic scene.

This is probably the best of the movies Wayne made before his death.The John Wayne philosophy is more than evident here;drink,atheist,pride,loyalty to his race but human enough to accept others,hard living and brave.His own man. The story is gullible but entertaining with a very good script and fine acting by all the actors especially the boys.Bruce Dern is chilling as the villain.The outdoor shooting is superb and the music lends to it.I have seen many of Wayne's movies and though his political leanings are evident there is something about his presence that appeals to common sense and being a MAN.