|
THE COWBOYS opens. Directed by Mark Rydell. Written by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. from the novel by William Dale Jennings. Set in 1878, John Wayne stars as a Montana rancher who is forced to hire 11 callow schoolboys as cowpokes on an arduous 400 mile cattle drive. A rousing, coming-of-age baptism of fire Western with a scene-stealing turn from Bruce Dern as a gnarly, bushwacking rustler who fatally underestimates the hard-won resolve of Wayne’s ostensible young greenhorns. Also starring Roscoe Lee Browne as a folksy chuck wagon cook, and a debuting Robert Carradine as one of the boys. Majestic score by John Williams.
