Re-posted by N.S.
John Wayne gave one of his most powerful performances in The Cowboys (1972), as aging, mule-headed rancher, Wil Anderson. Anderson’s veteran ranch hands all got gold fever, and so the only way he can bring in his herd is with a bunch of little school boys.
It was nice to see Wayne perform with Sarah Cunningham, a woman playing his wife who looked the part, instead of looking more like his daughter or grandaughter, Bruce Dern got to play a memorable heavy, “long hair/Asa Watts,” and John Williams composed one of the greatest scores ever written for the picture (see at the end). The husband-and-wife team of Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch provided Wayne with one of the best scripts he had to work with late in his career, and Mark Rydell, in spite of habitually switching genres with every picture, directed with a sure hand.
A day or two after watching this picture with (then nine-year-old?) my future chief of research, I was walking him to school and said something less than idolatrous about John Wayne, to which he responded, “Well, that’s your opinion!” He’s much less slavish in his admiration of Wayne today.
Unfortunately, however, time had passed the big cowboy by. His most ardent fans were either dead, or too old for going to the movies, and so the picture tanked at the box office.
The Trailer
“The 1972 classic John Wayne movie The Cowboys is the story of an aging rancher who has to hire schoolboys to help drive his cattle to market.
“Director Mark Rydell combined the two [N.S.: what two?] in a dynamic mixture of child actors and junior rodeo competitors. Actors who couldn’t ride and riders who’d never acted! All this and working with a legend. A hero! What was it like for the actors? For the junior rodeo riders? There were eleven altogether.
“In the second of our multipart tribute to The Cowboys for a special A Word on Westerns anniversary tribute, producer Rob Word interviews child actor Stephen Hudis, ‘Charlie,’ and young wrangler Albert Barker, Jr., ‘Fats,’ for a look back at a film that continues to gain new fans and still thrills those who watched it on its first release. In addition to sharing emotional memories, Stephen Hudis performs an original song written especially for the occasion, taped at The Autry Museum on May 17, 2022. His song is entitled “Eleven Lucky Boys.”
They sure were! Enjoy this special program and then check out previous A Word on Westerns episodes in our library devoted to The Cowboys with actors Robert Carradine and A Martinez.
John Williams’ Original Score to The Cowboys
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I hate to think what the studios would force Duke to make today--movie wise.
"The Cowboys" would be all black and Mex kids stressing him out.
"Put that gun down,you little ink spot."
"We don't listen to you--youse White."
"Meeester Duke,that black kid shot me."
" Cuz he shot my brother."
"You both have to learn to be better shots.Ya know why?You're both still TALKING."
--GRA
All the cowboys were black guys don't you know? Always a black dude behind the scenes doing all the work but never getting credit. Across the board. Sorta like Black Invention.
I once saw Bruce Dern on the Tonight Show. I think it was in the late 1970s. Dern was discussing how often he played a bad guy, saying, "I killed John Wayne."
Post a Comment