Why John Wayne’s most controversial Western role became his greatest life experience

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In the 1972 film The Cowboys, John Wayne plays a rancher who leads a group of schoolboys on a perilous cattle drive. While the film was a box office success, it sparked intense debate among critics over its depiction of violence as a necessary rite of passage into manhood.

Directed by Mark Rydell and based on a 1971 novel by William Dale Jennings, The Cowboys follows Wil Andersen, an aging rancher who recruits local schoolboys for a 400-mile cattle drive after his regular hands abandon him for a gold rush. The film explores themes of mentorship and maturation as Andersen and his cook, Jebediah Nightlinger, transform the inexperienced boys into capable cowhands. The narrative culminates in a violent confrontation with a gang of rustlers led by Asa Watts, who kills Andersen, prompting the boys to pursue vengeance.

The film’s conclusion, which sees the boys execute the rustlers to avenge their mentor, drew significant criticism upon its release. Prominent reviewers like Jay Cocks and Pauline Kael questioned the film's implication that true manhood is confirmed through acts of lethal violence. Despite this, John Wayne viewed the project as a unique highlight of his career. He drew parallels between his character and his roles in Goodbye Mr. Chips and Sands of Iwo Jima, noting that all three films centered on an adult figure initiating young men into adulthood through the transmission of specific skills and values.

The production had lasting effects on its cast. Bruce Dern, who played the villainous Watts, was typecast as a psychotic antagonist for years, receiving hate mail from audiences who were enraged by his character’s act of killing the legendary Wayne. Wayne had actually predicted this outcome, warning Dern that the public would despise him for the scene. While the film received mixed reviews, it remains a notable entry in the Western genre, even spawning a short-lived 1974 television series that struggled to adapt the story’s scope into a thirty-minute format.

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