Judging from the title alone -- in its full splendor it's "Jonn Wayne and the Cowboys" -- it sounds like just another one of those routine and mind-numbing attempts to cash in on Wayne's heroic image in the setting of the Old West. He ground out lots of these Sonicburgers in the 70s.
In most ways, that's what it is. Wayne must drive his herd of cattle through Montana. The local cowpokes have caught gold fever and left, so Wayne must hire a dozen little boys, the oldest of them being fifteen. The only other adult is the cook Roscoe Lee Brown, who serves as Wayne's conscience.
Wayne is a tough taskmaster. When one of the boys dozes in the saddle, Wayne doesn't just wake him up. He pushes him roughly off his horse. ("I pay a day's wages, I expect a day's work.") There are thinly disguised clichés in the script. One boy can't speak without stuttering until Wayne taunts him and insults him and the kid says, "You SOB!", without a stutter, forever cured. (Usually they throw away their crutches.) Supporting players have names like Jeb, Slim, Weedy, and Matt.
Wayne attempts nothing new, as he had in, say, "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon," "The Searchers", and "True Grit." He coasts along on his honorable John Wayneness. His wardrobe is the same as in the other efforts of this late period -- leather vest, high neckerchief, the usual hat -- although this time the color of the shirts under the vest is subdued.
But there are a couple of surprises. For one thing, he's finally given a plain-looking wife his own age. He's allowed to curse the aging process seriously. A fight with the no-goodnik Bruce Dern is particularly brutal. Instead of a simple clip on the jaw, Wayne must beat hell out of Dern to keep him down, and he takes many bruises in the process. And I can think of some movies in which Wayne is killed in combat or dies some heroic death. Here he gets shot in all his limbs before the mortal wound and it takes him quite a while to die.
And, although the ending provides the catharsis that the audience needs, I can't help wondering if it's a good idea to show that one of the lessons the kids learn is that all the bad guys should be slaughtered in the most painful way, whether they're armed or not.
By this time, Wayne must have had a lot of control over his material. I'm surprised that he allowed his character to be killed off so viciously. I'm also a little surprised that he repeats, multiple times, the metaphor, "We're burning daylight." It's from Shakespeare, who used it more than once. That should have carried a neon sign -- "Unclean" -- right there. That's not even to mention the pretty tune by Vivaldi played on a guitar.
In most ways, that's what it is. Wayne must drive his herd of cattle through Montana. The local cowpokes have caught gold fever and left, so Wayne must hire a dozen little boys, the oldest of them being fifteen. The only other adult is the cook Roscoe Lee Brown, who serves as Wayne's conscience.
Wayne is a tough taskmaster. When one of the boys dozes in the saddle, Wayne doesn't just wake him up. He pushes him roughly off his horse. ("I pay a day's wages, I expect a day's work.") There are thinly disguised clichés in the script. One boy can't speak without stuttering until Wayne taunts him and insults him and the kid says, "You SOB!", without a stutter, forever cured. (Usually they throw away their crutches.) Supporting players have names like Jeb, Slim, Weedy, and Matt.
Wayne attempts nothing new, as he had in, say, "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon," "The Searchers", and "True Grit." He coasts along on his honorable John Wayneness. His wardrobe is the same as in the other efforts of this late period -- leather vest, high neckerchief, the usual hat -- although this time the color of the shirts under the vest is subdued.
But there are a couple of surprises. For one thing, he's finally given a plain-looking wife his own age. He's allowed to curse the aging process seriously. A fight with the no-goodnik Bruce Dern is particularly brutal. Instead of a simple clip on the jaw, Wayne must beat hell out of Dern to keep him down, and he takes many bruises in the process. And I can think of some movies in which Wayne is killed in combat or dies some heroic death. Here he gets shot in all his limbs before the mortal wound and it takes him quite a while to die.
And, although the ending provides the catharsis that the audience needs, I can't help wondering if it's a good idea to show that one of the lessons the kids learn is that all the bad guys should be slaughtered in the most painful way, whether they're armed or not.
By this time, Wayne must have had a lot of control over his material. I'm surprised that he allowed his character to be killed off so viciously. I'm also a little surprised that he repeats, multiple times, the metaphor, "We're burning daylight." It's from Shakespeare, who used it more than once. That should have carried a neon sign -- "Unclean" -- right there. That's not even to mention the pretty tune by Vivaldi played on a guitar.