1972's The Cowboys stars John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, Bruce Dern, Colleen Dewhurst, Slim Pickens, and Robert Carradine (who makes his film debut as a child actor).
Based on a novel by William Dale Jennings, and the story focuses on a rancher (Wil Andersen) whose ranch hands abandon him to go join a gold rush, leaving the aging rancher to find replacements for a grueling, 400-mile cattle drive. The only people he can find willing to take on the job are some children that he hires as his crew.
It's a real coming-of-age story for the boys involved, but also for Andersen, who makes some sacrifices that he probably thought he'd never make in the beginning of the movie.
On this week's Flicks in Five, we'll hear a suite of John Williams's music from The Cowboys.
Original trailer — The Cowboys
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