THE COWBOYS (1972)

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Mark Rydell

SCREENWRITER: Irving Ravetch, Harriet Frank Jr.

FILM STARS: John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, Bruce Dern, Colleen Dewhurst, Slim Pickens, Robert Carradine, A. Martinez, Sarah Cunningham, Allyn Ann McLerie, Alfred Barker Jr. Nicolas Beauvy, Steve Benedict, Norman Howell, Stephen R. Hudis, Sean Kelly, Clay O’Brien, Sam O’Brien, Mike Pyeatt, Charles Tyner, Matt Clark, Jerry Gatlin, Ralph Volkie, Tap Canutt

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: William Dale Jennings

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Corgi

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1972

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1971

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Western

WORDS: A great John Wayne film. It is certainly one of his best films of the 1970s. Wayne is perfect in the title role where there are, inevitably, Wayne mannerisms, tropes and things you would expect from a script (especially in the confrontation with Long Hair, the Bruce Dern character) but he has let the screenplay’s character dominate. The book is more forgiving in its attitudes whilst the film is more black and white. Both positions have their qualities. Mark Rydell, a director not known for action or western films, directs with sensitivity, despite the fact there is a bit of bloodletting on the screen. The book about a trail drive where a ranch owner is forced to hire boys on as cowboys for a cattle drive, is a great read. It is rooted in time and place with the speech of the time (and quite a bit of profanity, racism and sexism as you would expect circa 1878). The author William Dale Jennings has even included a map of the trail drive, a note on the time and place, a glossary of western words and a table of western words still in common (1971) use.

If I recollect correctly the film follows the book reasonably closely. It may be a novelisation rather than a novel as Jennings wrote this book based on the film treatment (story) he had sold. He may have been writing the book at the same time as the screenwriters were hammering out the screenplay. It probably matters not but the book could fall into either camp, novel or novelisation. I think the former as Jennings strays away from the screenplay every now and then. There are touches of homoeroticism apparently (I didn’t see them I just assumed they were teenage boys “growing up”, then again somethings I miss … to quote Homer (the American one) “there’s something wrong with this place ladies ….”) and they are usually identified because author Jennings was openly gay, and a gay rights advocate well before Stonewall (he was one of the founders of what became known as the Mattachine Society, a society that sought to gain acceptance through greater communication between homosexuals and heterosexuals in the 50s). This is usually used by critics as a source of humour … John Wayne in a gay authors’ film. I always found that a little stupid. John Wayne had been in Hollywood since about 1924, so I don’t think he was naïve. I don’t think he really gave a crap about anyone’s sexual orientation as long as they were 110% American as Jennings was (a authentic westerner who during World War II was stationed at Guadalcanal and was awarded a World War 2 Victory Medal, an American Campaign medal, an Asiatic- Pacific campaign medal, and a Philippine Liberation Ribbon with one bronze star).

The book and the film are both essential experiences.

PAGES

page 62

LINKS

]TRAILER

MUSIC

The film theme by John Williams