The Cowboys (Deluxe Edition) (DVD)

...his choice. His choice being The Cowboys which was when John Wayne was at his peak so I am told.

The film sees John Wayne playing the role of William Anderson who is a 60 year old ranch owner who is trying to get his cattle to market as this will be his last year due to his age. He does not have any cowboys as they have all deserted him to go in search of gold. One of his friends suggests he goes to the town school and recruit the ...
...Soon he has 10 of the boys at his ranch and he is training them up to help him. During the training of the boys an older man turns up who I believe is called Nightingale and joins them. Nightingale helps with the teaching of the boys and soon finds himself as their role model. They are successful in training them and they soon set off on the 400 mile journey with the cattle to get to the market. Will they all arrive and sell the cattle and what life ... more

Oh boy, I think my hubby is getting revenge for me watching a chick flick last night as tonight I had to suffer a John Wayne film of his choice. His choice being The Cowboys which was when John Wayne was at his peak so I am told.

The film sees John Wayne playing the role of William Anderson who is a 60 year old ranch owner who is trying to get his cattle to market as this will be his last year due to his age. He does not have any cowboys as they have all deserted him to go in search of gold. One of his friends suggests he goes to the town school and recruit the boys to help him but he is not sure about this.

Soon he has 10 of the boys at his ranch and he is training them up to help him. During the training of the boys an older man turns up who I believe is called Nightingale and joins them. Nightingale helps with the teaching of the boys and soon finds himself as their role model. They are successful in training them and they soon set off on the 400 mile journey with the cattle to get to the market. Will they all arrive and sell the cattle and what life lessons will they learn along the way?

As I am not a John Wayne fan I was not very keen on watching this film as I thought it would be complete and utter rubbish but as it happens I was quite surprised. The story to the film was very good for a western and there was a great number of characters which gave the film a lot more depth. The young actors who played the parts of the school boys were excellent in their roles and they all looked very comfortable working with the horses and the cattle. All of them had speaking roles and I thought they came across very sincere and believable on screen.

John Wayne played his role well and I did believe in his character. I though the worked well with all of the young actors and they had a wonderful chemistry. I liked the fact that he came across as being very strict but in fact he was teaching them without the boys even knowing it. The role of nightingale was played by a very fine actor who I cannot recall the name of but he too worked well with the other actors and the horses.

The film was set in the 1800’s and everything looked very authentic and nothing seemed to be out of place. I think the Director really deserves some credit for making everything look so real. Hubby did say that the ranch which was used at the beginning of the film did actually belong to John Wayne.

The music throughout the film was for me the best part, despite not liking western films or their music. It was all written by John Williams who is also know for writing the music for Star Wars and Superman. It was all in keeping with the film and fitted very well. The music also added to the drama and tension of the film.

The film was shot on location but there was times when I did think that the back drop was added at a later date as the outline of the character seemed to be blurry around the edges but hubby told me this did not happen. Despite this there are some lovely shots of mountains and scenery which I feel added to the film for me.

I thought I was going to pee myself when half way through the film a black screen came up and we had the word ‘intermission’ come on the screen with the theme music playing. I really thought that they could have taken this out when transferring the film onto DVD. Hubby was very cheeky and did tell me to go and get him an ice cream when the music was on but the response I gave him is not allowed to be written on this site!

The DVD which we have does have some bonus material which includes:-

Commentary by Director Mark Rydell
New Cast / director reunion Featurettes ‘The Cowboys Together Again’
Vintage Featurettes ‘The Breaking of the boys and the making of men’
Trailer

I really did not make the time or the effort to watch these as I am not a western fan and had to suffer the film for long enough as it was.

The film has a running time of 129 minutes which I felt was just slightly too long as they could have compacted this down to a nice hour and a half which would have made it appeal more to me. The certificate of the film is a 12 which I feel is very appropriate as these is some moderate violence.

We bought this DVD many months ago but I had managed to get out of watching it. We paid just under £5 from Amazon which I am glad about as I don’t think I would have liked to have paid more.

Overall I would say that only real western fans or John Wayne fans should watch this film.
 

...less