The Cowboys - Revenge

[@Tadicuslegion78]

Roscoe Lee Browne could read the phonebook and make it sound so amazing

[@PJMaybe1]

Very True

[@jac6362]

He could read my death sentence and it would sound amazing.

[@TanzDerSchatten]

Imagine him and Morgan Freeman in a shouting match.

[@otravis676]

You're absolutely right there

[@2Brandec]

He narrated the movie Babe.

[@Bondek1996]

"...and for those I'm about to." First time I saw this got goosebumps. Great line and acting.

[@jb47vintage]

It was chilling.

[@cpcva724]

Roscoe Lee Brown

[@g5flyr169]

Right! You don’t even have to see the look on his face. Just hear that low baritone voice and you can’t help but swallow hard.

[@joanofarc1338]

I didn’t go through all the comments, but the smallest kid in the movie grew up to be 8 time Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association World Champion Team Roping heeler, Clay O’Brien Cooper. Make no mistake, he’s a COWBOY 💪🏼

[@mathewnieskes836]

Yup and he was in another one of John Wayne’s movies called Cahill

[@philburns9049]

1 year later.

[@hannibalheyes339]

Clay and I are the same age. Back in 1976, we met while he was filming "Mackintosh & T.J. in Matador Texas were I grew up.

[@gordyalderson1266]

Good friend and great guy! Loves the Lord

[@joanofarc1338]

@@gordyalderson1266 …and one heck of a heeler‼️

[@casesoutherland4175]

Whenever someone asks what is John Wayne's best movie, it's unquestionably The Cowboys. Ironically, it's probably the only Western where John Wayne's character doesn't even fire a shot. This movie isn't about gun fights or good versus evil. It's about boys becoming men.

[@bobdunn9878]

Have you seen "The Shootist"? It has more gunplay, but also works the "boys becoming men" theme.

[@trwent]

"It's unquestionably The Cowboys." Ridiculous.

[@samfrancisco8095]

And he dies in it.

[@odysseusrex5908]

@@bobdunn9878 and in that, it is superior to the book.

[@ilokivi]

As the old saying goes: Revenge is a dish best served cold.

[@PAYBACK1959]

In questo caso pure bagnato !!!!!

[@Ron-d2s]

There was a British sci-fi sitcom, one of the alien races got the quote a bit wrong...... "Revenge is a dish best served....... ON RICE!!!!!!"

[@TellThaTruth]

"It is very cold in space".

[@Falconlibrary]

I'd say that "What I Did On My Summer Vacation" essay is gonna practically write itself for these boys.

[@Anderixx]

A typical holiday in South Dakota 😂

[@KarlSchmidt-o8t]

Roscoe Lee Browne, one of the best actors of that era in every job he took on !!!

[@kyle47922]

I met him once what a nice guy.

[@joemag6032]

I think he had a strange roll in "Logan's Run" as a silver creature who kills and freezes humans into TV dinners.

[@stephenfricke9298]

Bruce Dern, by far the best bad guy ever in movies. Epic Western

[@philburns9049]

I thought he was hilarious in the burbs. The troubled Vietnam vet.

[@ashcarrier6606]

I remember Dern saying he was so successful as a villain that cops pulling him over for traffic violations would sometimes draw their guns on him. They sensed they were facing someone "villainous", but they couldn't quite place it.

[@kidd_gallahad2512]

Dern always played the crazy guy in any film. He just had that type of look. Always one step away from total disaster.

[@jeffreyb8770]

Silent Running was his best movie.😊

[@stephenle-surf9893]

@@jeffreyb8770hell yes! Bring a grown man to tears 😭

[@2centsam927]

Jeremiah nightlinger. One of the coolest cats to ever trail drive !

[@schatze3412]

Jebediah

[@2centsam927]

@@schatze3412 I stand corrected.

[@TheSnowmanvocals]

I always thought of him as bulldog myself (that was the dog who Roscoe Lee Brown played in Oliver & Company lol) But definitely top notch character!

[@chrispile3878]

Nightlinger is a real person in history.

[@mustangbrand1159]

@@2centsam927 we know who you meant ! Yep, one cool cat

[@hellmuthschreefel9392]

One of John Wayne's best movies but not because of John Wayne. The star of this movie was Roscoe Lee Browne. He owned every scene he was in.

[@willywonkachevy]

I agree. I often think about many of his movies that could be more than shoot’em up plays and portray the Native American in a different way. This is one of those movies that isn’t playing a racial trope or whitewashing a minority. His audience wasn’t ready for it, and it is a shame. John Wayne is an incredible actor but so much more could have been done to engrave him into history. True Grit was a good movie but The Cowboys is better.

[@trwent]

True Grit and The Cowboys are not even in the top ten of John Wayne films. If you want to find the best movies of Wayne's career, you have to go to the earlier period, to films directed by the likes of John Ford and Howard Hawkes. Rio Grande, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, Stagecoach, Rio Bravo, El Dorado, The Quiet Man, Sons Of Katie Elder, Big Jake, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Red River, and of course, his greatest, The Searchers.

[@EricLouchis]

@@trwent They were expendable...

[@abehambino]

Total BS. This is one of the Duke’s best performances. This isn’t to take away from brown, but saying Wayne didn’t help make this a great movie is utter nonsense.

[@adelhartreisig9020]

You're a good boy.

[@Bazooka_Momma]

Nightlinger’s peace with his maker: “Where to begin… I regret having trifled with married women. I’m entirely ashamed of having cheated at cards. I deplore my occasional departure from the truth. Forgive me for taking your name in vain. By Saturday drunkenness, by Sunday sloth. Above all, forgive me for the men I’ve killed in anger, and for those I’m about to.”

[@grantgarrod2232]

You watch Bruce Dern fade into the distance as he's being dragged to death, screaming in agony, & all you can think is, "Gee I sure hope that horse will be all right.". :) I saw this movie as a kid, & when Dern took the boy's eyeglasses, a family heirloom, & crumpled them into junk out of pure spite, I think it was the first time I ever truly hated someone enough to wish an agonizing death on them. And all his men were only a step below that, watching as he terrorized & abused a young boy like that , & not one of them lifted a finger to try and stop him. It wasn't until I grew up that I fully appreciated just how well Mr. Dern had played his role, a true villain, in every sense of the word.

[@richardgibbins5612]

He's a Dern good actor. Great in every roll. I think I remember the kid who Dern's character terrorizes in this film was scared! Before he gets dragged by the horse, he channels Dr Smith from lost in space quite well. "Don't let him get up...take Will or Penny, they're young and strong...."

[@davidgarbersr.8065]

It was just a movie with actors. That was their job. Great acting.

[@Commanderziff]

"Please... my leg is broken!" Dude, you just watched them kill everyone else, why would you think they'd care?

[@GeneralGeorgeS.PattonJr.]

On top of that he murdered John Wayne in front of these same boys.

[@mattholland8966]

I love Nightlingers' speech. That's some of the coolest dialog ever in a movie..

[@hoskinmage]

We need HEROS like this today. People have gone back to being animals no humanity no self love and being to sorry to work.

[@adrianmacgrath5814]

Hero's that arm children and go to war with them and encourage them to torture a lad to death 🤔

[@mattmarzula]

Too* Otherwise, agreed.

[@Capcoor]

They weren’t like that back in the day?

[@kenyattatucker1279]

This Gotta be Red Dead Remediation

[@shaynemhopkins]

⁠​⁠@@Capcoor a few where but most weren't just my generation gen z likes to point out the few that where they try to make it seem like most where because they can't except the fact that most of my generation are utter animals lacking self respect grit and humanity where most people back the had it unlike my generation.

[@vwm8534]

Always loved this part of the movie. Forgive me for those I've killed and for those I'm about to. What a great line. Bruce Dern really made this movie. Great bad guy performances always do. IMO THEbest John Wayne movie ever.

[@ourinterestingtymes]

I like how Bruce Dern's character despite being a genuine scoundrel still possesses the sense of reverence to remove his hat while Browne's character supposedly speaks his final words. Somewhere in this wretched man's life, he was taught Christian decency, and he retained some remnant of that instruction.

[@modrenwarefare]

To me this is the best western movie shootout scene ever. It’s not long, to the point, badass and extremely satisfying. It’s not Good The Bad and the Ugly, or Unforgiven or True Grit styles. But it’s well paced and extremely well executed. This for me is the best shootout from a western.

[@SirGutWriter]

This one is decent but not close to the best. For Wayne films, there are many better ones - El Dorado, Big Jake, to name a couple. Overall, though, my favorite is Open Range with Kevin Costner & Robert Duvall. It's long but shot in pretty real time; it's gritty & not glorious. The opening alone is as good as it gets.

[@thervers2140]

I THINK ALL KIDS SHOULD SEE THIS. I WATCHED IT WITH MY KIDS AND GRANDKIDS.

[@32NinerBravo]

Love this movie so much I bought it on DVD. Great movie.

[@damontoledo8253]

Bruce Dern getting dragged away hilariously reminds me of Robin Hood: Men In Tights. "Mind the big rocks!"

[@philosopher1a]

Extremely satisfying and justified ending

[@philosopher1a]

Bruce dern is such a great villain i remember hating him after watching this movie . i saw it as a kid

[@masonbricke4568]

I heard Bruce Dern on a talk show, speaking about how this movie helped make him famous, both as an actor and as John Wayne's "killer". He said he was chased a couple of times by angry people who thought his on-screen villainy was real. Give the public a good story with good characters and they will believe in it and emotionally invest in it.

[@philosopher1a]

@@masonbricke4568 Wow didn't know that ..yeah I was a kid so i clearly remembering ahting him ,,but adults that's messed up

[@johnnyhartdawg6220]

​@@philosopher1ahe's really great in diggstown

[@illtemperedcur9798]

Story goes that his agent tried to talk him out of taking the role, because everyone in Middle America would hate his guts for killing John Wayne (this being the early 70s and the Vietnam era). Dern just laughed and quipped "yeah, but they'll LOVE me in Berkeley"

[@monte5293]

One of the best westerns ever made.

[@glennbrymer4065]

Well, I had an old granddaddy, back in the early 1950s. He was 80, I was 5. We lived out in the west Texas desert. My daddy was a hard working oilfield superintendent. My mother was a vain unhappy woman who had vices. I often found myself out by my granddaddies camp fire. He stayed in a small tear drop trailer to the far side of our house. Mom was a drunk and it was best to stay away during the day. My old granddaddy was a full on reprobate. He taught me lots of things he thought I might find useful later in life. Truth is, I could put a full box of 22. Lr bullets into the bottom of a Vienna sausage can with a small pump 22. Rifle thanks to him. I learned to chew mesquite beans & make bread with them. I learned about keeping a knife sharp, and how to dress out a rabbit and, how and where to cut & stab another man in a fight. I learned how to track critters and play with scorpions & rattle snakes. How to build a fire and cook game. He was an old used up one eyed near do well old cowboy. Lost an eye herding cattle down in south Texas as a young man. He was a pistol. I'd listen to him at night, by his fire. He'd drink, if he had it, and talk. He would roll his squirly cigarettes from bull dram sacks with one hand. I learned many things. My daddy died when I was 6, my grand daddy died when I was 7. No matter, my grand daddy had prepared me with the truth of things in general comes to men, women & their ways. I'm 72 now, retired US Army disabled veteran at 19. Was labeled an outlaw at 20 and given a felony for smoking pot. The rest, is history. But bless my old granddaddy. Because he sure prepared me for the future. He would have highly approved of this movie, I'd like to think. Life can be hard. It mostly is, unless you was born rich. But they put thier pants on one leg at a time too. In the end, you only have your word & reputation. Not everyone will understand it all.

[@happysanchezjr.9162]

No one cares

[@caseycasey621]

The happy music as little boys mercilessly slaughter the band of villains really ties this scene together

[@bobham919]

i saw this movie when i was like 12 and now it make much more sense. John Wayne for the win.

[@jimayers7461]

Bruce is actually a great guy. I love that man

[@dmacbain8326]

Roscoe Browne Great line. Great actor with a great voice.

[@oldschoolboyscout]

One of the greatest western scenes ever.

[@johnberger5539]

One of the greatest scenes in movie history.

[@markc5111]

Absolutely awesome Western that has everything and is directed fantastically...😂😁

[@patfromamboy]

I saw this movie with my parents and grandma at the Kiggins theater in Vancouver Washington when it was released. It was the only movie we saw together at the theater. I remember getting excited about this scene and amazed by the language because I hadn’t been allowed to see movies with normal language.

[@iggysfriend4431]

This is an excellent film.I remember seeing this the 1st time and even now it doesn't grow old for me. It's definitely a decent tale of them leaving as boys and arriving as men.

[@Jimmersaunt]

I first saw this movie in the theater-the crowd cheered when this happened! This is one of my favorite movies! And by the way the film’s iconic score was composed by John Williams!

[@42lookc]

"I think my leg is broken". Stuntman Mike knows how that's going to turn out.

[@Freddie-x4s]

What a film they don't make them like this no more such a shame

[@rjhyden]

Now they would be getting sex changes instead of herding cattle.

[@franciswinters6626]

What another great Classic. Memories

[@charlesfaure1189]

Man, that felt good. Tremendous performance from Bruce Dern.

[@odysseusrex5908]

"Above all, forgive me for the men I have killed in anger, and for those I am about too." Just gives me chills every time I hear it!

[@mckenzie.latham91]

Roscoe Lee Browne was brilliant

[@harrymiram5562]

Should have, at least, got Best Supporting Actor nomination...IMO

[@BrockBerlin-hp4vs]

That was one of the best John Wayne Movies, and the cast that was put together was awesome. There are no movies made this wel anymore.

[@BarbaraThirlwell]

My favourite bit is the end😍where the boys drive the cows through town💕💕💕✌️

[@airbornegrunt6898]

One of my favorite john wayne movies!!!

[@robertrueckert9524]

That was one of his all great movies ever made to bad he is gone but not forgotten long live

[@fidellucero9321]

First John Wayne movie I ever saw and still my favorite. Best movie villain ending ever filmed too

[@KevinDick-h6f]

For Roscoe Lee Browne's era he was one of the greatest character actors .

[@yidy1]

The Live brass music really makes the scene great!

[@GodsFavoriteBassPlyr]

Fantastic film in every respect. One of my all time favs.

[@PJMaybe1]

Mine too!

[@LauraCahill-w2l]

Still my favorite part of the movie

[@bolt4694]

My favorite Bruce Dern role? The character of Joe Danby in Support Your Local Sheriff. With James Garner.

[@PJMaybe1]

Great Movie.

[@thomastarwater2989]

During the making of THE COWBOYS (1972), John Wayne told fellow cast member Bruce Dern that he was going to be the most hated man in America.

[@thomastani749]

But Bruce Derns reply was “they are gonna love me in Berkeley. Bruce and John shared a laugh”

[@Flacco-p5k]

One of my favorites of all time!

[@russelmurray9268]

Coolest thing I've ever seen in a movie

[@Untouchable1932]

Them varmints had it comin'!

[@Craig2760]

Wasn’t good a memorizing stuff as a kid but I memorized Mr Knighlinger’s prayer after the second time sitting through the movie at the theater.

[@donaldschmitt4677]

Excellant movie!! One of my favs!!!

[@jerameedwards1832]

Growing up this was my favorite movie as a young boy

[@denisjl100]

this is probably one of the best movies john wayne ever made. should have won his oscar for it. funny thing is bruce dern didn't get many movie offers after "killing" john wayne.

[@alainarchambault2331]

Hell of a way to come of age.

[@VincentPope-hy3qb]

Uptown Saturday night 🌃. Funny as hell.

[@Woody615]

Roscoe Lee Browne, Morgan Freeman, or James Earl Jones. I'd like one of these 3 to narrate my life when it's turned into a movie. 🙂

[@devlinallistair-zx5by]

Forgive me for the men that I've killed in anger....and for those I'm about to.

[@trwent]

Made easier by the fact that they left his hands untied.

[@devlinallistair-zx5by]

@@trwent great line, though

[@VincentPope-hy3qb]

One of the most unique of.all. powerful.

[@11Stucat]

Bruce Dern became the most hated actor in Hwood after this role.

[@tryingtobefairandobjective3480]

Dern was great.

[@russelljudkins3314]

I love when they came in yhe town and they had John Wayne horse in the line

[@altha-rf1et]

love that show there was a TV series did not last long would like to see that again

[@delavalmilker]

This was a VERY controversial scene back in 1972. The image and action of a group of boys shooting and killing was considered shocking by some critics. But it was a standout movie---one of the best of Wayne's career, even though he is killed about 3/4 of the way through the film. Roscoe Lee Browne was another high note of the film.

[@georgeprchal3924]

Those kids knew how to handle business.

[@rgs4x]

I remember seeing this is the movie theatre. Saturday matinee on a Navy Base. 25 cents to get in. I wanted to be a cowboy so bad after seeing this.

[@kathrynludrick4821]

Great scene

[@alessiodecarolis]

A really satisfying death, B. Dern played one of the best baddies in movies ' history, he was another one in "Black Sunday".

[@bravesrule384]

I wasn't born yet when this movie came out (it came out three years beforehand), but along about 1980, I grew up to be a huge John Wayne fan along with my grandpa and this was one of his favorite John Wayne movies along with Sands Of Iwo Jima (he served in WW II in the navy) and Sons of Katie Elder as my grandpa had 3 brothers and there were four Elder boys so both of them were movies he kind of connected with.

[@PJMaybe1]

I was 7 and my mum was a big Duke fane - grew up watching all his movies with her.

[@stretmediq]

Saw this at the Cinema 150 in Little Rock Arkansas when it first came out

[@joaobatistaraposovasti6524]

Filme espetacular!!!

[@jamesmcginnis6710]

Pinned under his horse -- just like Rooster Cogburn!

[@longhairedlayabout]

Great movie.. questionable morality. ... Bruce Dern was fantastic in every movie was in. He was the greenie hippy in Silent Running.

[@cpcva724]

John Wayne warned Dern he was going to catch hell from movie goers for shooting him in the back. Wayne was correct in his prediction.

[@captainamerica6525]

Cannot judge the actions of those boys from over a hundred years ago by todays standards.

[@williamphillips6049]

That was another awesome movie. I could talk all day about it but I won't. He was the bad guy there too, but really, he was the best.

[@Delatta1961]

Silent Running… I remember as a kid crying my eyes out at the end. The robots were like children

[@wolfenstein6676]

Bruce when he starred in the comedy classic, "The Burbs", was pure comedy gold 😂.

[@captainamerica6525]

Bruce Dern played a "miserable wretch."

[@jeffdwyer6105]

Imagine kids that age getting to play "real Cowboy " with real guns (on the set)

[@thudthud5423]

I am thinking this was a dream role for any child actor in the late 60s/early 70s - to play a gun-toting cowboy along side the legendary John Wayne.

[@LoriFoster]

Back in the Good Ole Days when a bunch of 10 - 15 year olds could shoot some Side Winders and be Thanked without so much as story to the Sheriff!

[@jeff3638]

Cold blooded 10 year Olds are the Cute cure😅

[@lawrencehawkins7198]

Yessir! Couldn't make this today! Woke types would go straight nuts!

[@nathanadrian7797]

That horse will run until it can't! I read the book as a kid and saw the movie a couple years later, one of my favourites.

[@philburns9049]

52 years now, I actually wanted to see Asa Watts draw his last breath. . . . However we actually did not get to see Wil Andersen draw his last breath.

[@aaronleverton4221]

It'll run until it's bored and/or has forgotten the sound of the gunshot that startled it. Horses aren't robots.

[@nathanadrian7797]

@@aaronleverton4221 When a horse drags a rider, it tries to run away from what is draging, and it will continue to run away from whatever is tied to it until it is so exhausted that it can't run. If you fall down while mounting up, and your foot catches in the stirrup, you better not let go of your reins, or old Paint will drag you to death!

[@aaronleverton4221]

@@nathanadrian7797 Perhaps my sister's mountain pony cross was just too even-tempered, then.

[@nathanadrian7797]

@@aaronleverton4221It is a rare horse indeed that will not panic at a rider dragging from a stirrup . I used to work for a riding stable for a short time, and they had a young girl get dragged for about half a mile, the boss's son was able to catch the horse with a faster horse and saved the girls life. Your sister had an excellent horse.

[@Dan.50]

Every boy has to become a man.

[@RoverIAC]

I loved this film when I was a kid.

[@johnnyhartdawg6220]

What's it called?

[@RoverIAC]

@@johnnyhartdawg6220 "The Cowboys" 1972 it stars John Wayne, dir Mark Rydell. Basic story, John Wayne needs to hire a bunch of Cow Hands to herd his herd across country, but the only people he can find is a bunch of young boys..... ie. cow boys.

[@johnnyhartdawg6220]

@@RoverIAC Yeah. I just realized that about five seconds after I asked loll. Is it a good movie?

[@RoverIAC]

@@johnnyhartdawg6220 sure it is... but I've only seen it twice on late night TV and that was over well 30 and 40 years ago. But compared to modern hollywood I would think it would still be worth a watch. It's the only film that John Wayne .... (NO SPOILERS)

[@metallampman]

Was great no doubt

[@donnie6178]

I must have been around 9 years old when I saw this at the movies, and it used to be 75 cents to get in and me and my brother went by ourselves.😂 Now you can't let kids go anywhere because there's so many scumbags and criminals around in our what used to be great country.

[@ulfricthorsson8347]

His atonement needs to be on a shirt, in black lettering and the line "and for those I'm about to " in red with his picture of that sideways glare

[@archstanton6965]

“We’re burning daylight!”

[@deaconfrost4100]

Young boys grow up to be men real fast when they have to protect what's theirs from thieves and murders and use a gun....life makes adults of us all sooner or later

[@aaronleverton4221]

Even if he manages to get loose from the stirrup, he can't walk on a broken leg, the sheer agony of what he's been through will already be putting him into shock. He's going to die very, very alone in searing, agonising pain that is literally driving him crazy as he dies, shivering from the cold, while sweating from a fever. Rooster could have told Asa that you need a Texas Ranger up on a hill with a rifle if you get your leg trapped under your horse in a gunfight. But Asa was too tough to listen to an old man like Rooster.

[@johnnycash578]

best western

[@6dogs729]

I think my leg is broke.....them okayyyyy and?

[@naughtydorf18]

leg broke?...tough SHIT

[@tflynn2400]

That's a good start. What next fellas?

[@MrWayne1701]

Whew, that was SOME prayer Mr. Nightlinger put out! Fifty-two years later, that remains the most pitiless bunch a faces, with the coldest eyes, I have EVER seen! I DO wonder what would've become of that poor horse, though...

[@ronliebermann]

“Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.”

[@strattuner]

they're not boys any longer,they should have never killed the old man,he turned into a father image,that they adored,respected,mountains of respect,enough to where their love for him overwhelmed their sense of justice,which turned to hot revenge,they cared not

[@ludwigderzanker9767]

Simply forgot this fantastic end, but it's always hard to look at the Duke gonna die..Thx from Northern Germany Ludwig.

[@mjremy2605]

No namby pamby jail for this guy!