THE COWKIDS

THE COWBOYS (1972)
dir: Mark Rydell

MAD #154, October 1972
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Jack Davis

Wil Anderson (John Wayne) is a rancher whose crew of cattle drivers leaves him in favor of the gold rush.

He doesn't know how he'll get to Belle Fourche now without them. He asks a store owner (Slim Pickens) if there's any help around and it's suggested he get help at the local school. He visits there and gives his pitch to the male students there.

The next morning they're all on his ranch to see him and he'll take anyone who he feels can handle riding wild broncos and running a cattle drive. Wil feels they're good for boys but when this is over, he'll make them into men.

Often I end up chopping off the Sergio Aragones marginals when I have to cut up the pages, but had to include this since it coincidentally is somewhat related.

An older boy, Cimmaron, shows up at the last moment, proves his worth showing he can get the job done.

A cook, Nightlinger (Roscoe Lee Brown) shows up and becomes part of the posse. A fight between two of the boys in which one calls the others mother a “puta” (that means “whore” in Spanish) make Wil think they might lack maturity, but he has no choice but to use them. A group of men led by Long Hair (Bruce Dern) approach Wil saying that they should be the ranchers instead because they're real men. When Long Hair gives his past experience and gets caught in a lie, he's turned down.

The kids are confused that Nightlinger is black. In the movie they ask him if he's the same color under his clothes too. Wil has Stuttering Bob (Sean Kelly) overcome his stuttering problem by provoking him into yelling at him.

At night, the kids steal a bottle of liquor and get drunk while Wil and Nightlinger eavesdrop and acknowledge it as a rite of passage. The next day, the kids see a bunch of girls camping and run away not knowing what to do, Nightlinger comes by and apologizes.

They find out Long Hair has been following them all along, intimidating the group of kids and planning to steal the cattle and finish the job himself. This leads to him eventually meeting up with Wil and killing him.

Bruce Dern claims the fact that he killed John Wayne hurt his career. If he means it kept him from playing a lead and typecast him, maybe, but he had plenty of work right after that. He long outlived Wayne and has more credits, so take it with a grain of salt.

The kids and Nightlinger develop a plan to defeat Long Hair and his gang, killing some of the men and spooking Long Hair's horse, causing it to run away with his foot caught in the stirrups.

They all make it to Belle Fourche and finish the cattle drive themselves.