In this revered Western, Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) returns home to Texas after the Civil War. When members of his brother's family are killed or abducted by Comanches, he vows to track down his surviving relatives and bring them home. Eventually, Edwards gets word that his niece Debbie (Natalie Wood) is alive, and, along with her adopted brother, Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter), he embarks on a dangerous mission to find her, journeying deep into Comanche territory.
John Wayne has brawled bare-knuckled, gunned down desperadoes, fought jungle wars and piloted the skies. But The Cowboys gives him one of his juiciest roles as a leather-tough rancher who, deserted by his regular help, hires eleven greenhorn schoolboys for a cattle drive across 400 treacherous miles. When the dust settles, Wayne gives one of his best performances. In The Cowboys, Rex Reed wrote, "All the forces that have made him a dominant personality as well as a major screen presence seem to combine.
