Cowboy (1958)

One of my all time favorites.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

You get a taste of what it was like. The word wild before west is presented rather well here. You work hard and you play hard and there are rules for both too. Enjoy two good actors Jack Lemon and Glenn Ford working at their trade while we glimpse history. Lemon playing drama was a treat too. There was fortunes to be made running cattle. Instant wealth was available back in the day when you normally had to work hard for years just to save enough money for a small spread. But it was sweat money. You earned every dollar and you risked your life every time too. You can retire rich but not before you eat a lot of dust and lose a lot of sleep. They make the point of eating chicken in between eating beef here a couple of times. You can only eat so much beef & beans. Speaking of eating, do a meal while watching this. Have a snack and a tasty drink on standby too. Enjoy

Cowboy is directed by Delmer Daves and adapted to screenplay by Edmund H. North and Dalton Trumbo from Frank Harris' book My Reminiscences as a Cowboy. It stars Glenn Ford, Jack Lemmon, Víctor Manuel Mendoza, Anna Kashfi, Dick York, King Donovan, Brian Donlevy and Richard Jaeckel. Music is by George Duning and cinematography by Charles Lawton Junior.Based on Frank Harris' memoir, the story finds Lemmon as Harris, a Chicago hotel clerk who in an attempt to prove he is a man and impress the girl he loves, wrangles his way onto a cattle drive being led by rough and tough cowpoke Tom Reece (Ford). He soon finds that out there on the range, in amongst the dust, beef and perils of the west, that life is far from glamorous.Once you buy into Lemmon as a Western character, accepting his transference from utter greenhorn into a man of the drive, it really becomes a very good film. It's a sort of debunking of the cowpoke myths whilst playing out as a character study of two men, who are polar opposites, as they build an understanding and ultimately help each other to grow and learn. Along the way, from Chicago to the Rio Grande, there is fights, death, stampedes and tests of loyalties and manhood. The great Delmer Daves directs it without fuss or filler (how nice that the romantic arc is rightly a side issue and doesn't get in the way) and Lawton's photography brings the sprawling landscapes to life. Lead cast members are excellent, with Ford once again providing rich characterisation by way of layered acting, and Lemmon rises up to the challenge of genre work outside of what he would be known for. In support Donlevy is his usual excellent self, making what could have been a clichéd character (aging gunfighter wants to leave his past behind) interesting with emotional depth, and Mendoza as the Ramrod is good foil for Ford. There's some quibbles, such as Dick York hard to take seriously, Jaeckel and Strother Martin (uncredited) wasted and some of the humour doesn't come off. But this is a very enjoyable film, one that thrives on having some character depth and actually something worthy to say. 7.5/10

Cowboy (1958) is one of a series of outstanding westerns directed by Delmer Daves that includes the classic 3:10 to Yuma (1957) and the dramatically scenic Jubal (1956). Too bad his body of western work has failed to receive the recognition it deserves. Here he's concerned with de-romanticizing the myth of the trail drive, showing how harsh conditions breed harsh men. Lemmon is well chosen as the cowboy wannabe, worming his way into the rowdy Glenn Ford's trail drive. There he discovers the routine brutalities that help explain behavior as a tenderfoot, he couldn't understand. But in the process he has some civilizing lessons of his own that manage to take hold among the rough cowboy crowd.And whoever thought up that snake twirling episode deserves an award for sheer originality. I've seen nothing like it in years of viewing. Plus the deadly consequences of that witless cowboy fun is put on tragic display in a way that cleverly revises decades of cowboy mythology. To me, it's the movie's brilliant centerpiece. Still, the film is filled with exciting and unusual action, such as the cattle car that could crush a tank, or the pin-the-ring on the angry bull that's more like a test of manhood than a game.No, this is certainly no cliché western. Ford and Lemmon are excellent, especially the latter who's certainly extended out of his usual mild-mannered character. Daves directs with flair and some well-timed tinges of humor. All in all, however, I'm still not sure how to take the movie's overall message even though it appears to have one in mind.

Wonderful western with Glenn Ford and Jack Lemmon.You'd think at the beginning that this would be a comedy as Lemmon plays a timid hotel clerk dreaming of a life as a cowboy. His desire increases over the woman he loves, especially when she is forced back to Mexico by her father who then arranges a marriage for her.This film is anything but comical. It's the story of cowboys coming of age. It shows how the 2 partners, Ford and Lemmon forge a relationship. It describes the cowboy idea of death. Both men will eventually take on the personality of each other.An aging Brian Donlevy takes on a role as a cowhand, a former sheriff, with a conscience. Even the unusually villainous Richard Jaeckel is somewhat subdued here. Look for Dick York as a hand, he'd later make it so big in the television show "Bewitched."