cowboys

THE FLICK: Watching an actor as iconic as John Wayne finish out his career can be a painful thing. We’re not talking about some bit player from Omaha. This is John Wayne; a man who played essentially the same character in nearly 200 films over 5 decades and cemented himself into the national identity. When that identity changed during the Vietnam era – from unquestioning patriotism to cynical mistrust – Wayne became a figure of right-wing politics gone wrong. And very few members of the new generation were able – or willing - to separate the actor from the man. Hence The Cowboys, probably Wayne’s best performance in the modern era (he would only make six more films) has slipped into a pile of half-forgotten Westerns the actor crammed into his fading career.