The Cowboys
Warner Bros. | Release Date: January 13, 1972 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 7 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It's the ending, really, that spoils The Cowboys. Otherwise, it's a good-to-fine Western, with a nice, sly performance by Roscoe Lee Browne as the trail cook, and the usual solid Wayne performance. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
Mark Rydell shows some fine touches in his third feature, but the result is an overlong and often-dull movie that had the rare distinction of being one of the few John Wayne westerns that gasped at the box office. Read full review
60
EmpireKim Newman
After several successful films where he plays the tough-as-nails cowboy, Wayne wasn't about to break the pattern now. Playing the only character he knows, he gives several inspiring speeches to an unlikely group of kids who turn from boys to men. Read full review
60
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
Although the film is well performed and beautifully shot by Robert Surtees, its ideology is highly objectionable, celebrating as it does the turning of the boys into hardened killers. Read full review
60
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
The story [from a novel by William Dale Jennings] is long and episodic, and its gentle treatment makes the length something of a hindrance to maximum enjoyment. Read full review
50
The New York TimesVincent Canby
So flecked with minor dishonesties that you come to recognize it as a sort of Formica Western, something that amounts to a parody of the real thing. Read full review
40
The New YorkerPauline Kael
Pious muck.
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