Cowboys

A veteren rancher risks everything when he recruits schoolboys to man a dangerous cattle drive. One of John Wayne's solid twilight hits, co-starring Bruce Dern and Colleen Dewhurst. Year: 1972 Director: Mark Rydell Starring: John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, Bruce Dern

Notorious as the first John Wayne film that does the unthinkable--subject Wayne's character to a nasty fate after only a short time--the 1972 Cowboys isn't much more interesting beyond that. The story finds Wayne playing a rancher who takes 11 boys on a cattle drive. They run into a nut case (Bruce Dern) who deprives the kids of their leader, and the rest of the film is a tale of revenge. Mark Rydell (Cinderella Liberty) directs an unexciting production, although performances by some of the younger actors such as A. Martinez and Robert Carradine are memorable. --Tom Keogh