The Cowboys

The Cowboys is a 1972 American Western film starring John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, and Bruce Dern, and featuring Colleen Dewhurst and Slim Pickens. It was the feature film debut of Robert Carradine. Based on the 1971 novel of the same name by William Dale Jennings, the screenplay was written by Irving Ravetch, Harriet Frank, Jr., and Jennings, and the film was directed by Mark Rydell. Plot When his ranch hands abandon him to join a gold rush, aging rancher Wil Andersen is forced to find replacement drovers for his upcoming cattle drive. He rides into deserted Bozeman, Montana, where his friend Anse Peterson suggests hiring local schoolboys. Andersen visits the school, but departs, skeptical that such immature boys could handle the job. The next morning, the boys show up at Andersen's ranch to volunteer for the drive. Andersen reluctantly tests their ability to stay on a bucking horse, and as they successively take turns, Cimarron, a boy slightly older than the others, rides up. He subdues the test horse but then gets into a fight with Slim, the next-oldest boy. With no other options and somewhat impressed, Andersen hires all of the boys, though he sends Cimarron away after the older boy pulls a knife on Slim during another fight. Andersen locks all of the boys' guns in a box that will be kept on the chuck wagon during the drive, and they practice roping, branding, and herding cattle and horses. While they prepare, a group of mysterious men led by Asa "Long Hair" Watts shows up asking for work, but Andersen catches Watts in a lie about his past and refuses to hire them. The arrival of Jebediah Nightlinger, a black cook, completes Andersen's crew.