John Wayne had brawled bareknuckle, gunned down desperadoes, fought jungle wars and piloted the skies. But The Cowboys gave him one of his juiciest roles as a leather-tough rancher who, deserted by his regular help, hires 11 greenhorn schoolboys for a cattle drive across 400 treacherous miles. When the dust settled, Wayne had given one of his best performances. In The Cowboys, Rex Reed wrote, all the forces that have made him a dominant personality as well as a major screen presence seem to combine. Old Dusty Britches can act. Deserted by his regular help, a rancher is forced to use eleven young boys to help drive his cattle across four hundred miles of western country, and turns them into men while doing it.
