Quote Originally Posted by 3LB
The Cowboys - great coming of age story. A clumsy premise (teenage boys in a cattle drive) is made plausible with great script and direction. Sure, most of the kids are inexperienced at acting, but their "deer in the headlights" look works for the task at hand, and gels towards the end of a perfectly paced movie.

The adults in the movie are pitch-perfect. John Wayne once again epitomizes old west justice and integrity. Its the same role he always played, but it was also a recurring character in westerns and no one played it better. Roscoe Lee Brown, with his jazz-tinged, thespian staccato entact, might seem out of place but with such a pivotal role, they needed to cast someone who could hold their own w/ Wayne and Brown does just that. Then there's the most loathable villain in film history, Bruce Dern, who conveys more menace with a parting glare than a page of dialog could. Its the only time the bad guy has ever put Wayne in a palpable sense of danger (in a movie) to my recollection. I saw this as a kid, the conclusion of the showdown twix Wayne and Dern made me shudder.
If you remember Bruce Dern plays a great bad guy in "Hang Em High" with Clint Eastwood. Which segways me to one of my all time favorites "The Good The Bad and The Ugly"
Also a couple of lighter films "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Maverick.