A “Cowboy” In Our Midst

For the roles of the boys in “The Cowboys” Rydell hired five who were actors and six who were real cowboys — rodeo and ranch horse riders with little or no acting experience. In addition to Wayne and the boys, the film also starred Bruce Dern, Roscoe Lee Brown and Colleen Dewhurst.

By E.A. Barrera

It was a different type of cowboy movie. But for fourteen year old Mike Pyeatt in the Summer of 1971, the revisionism and politics of Mark Rydell’s film “The Cowboys” was not on his mind nearly as much as the fact that John Wayne recognized him and always said hello.

Riding Crazy Alice: By the time he’d reached his 16th birthday, Mike Pyeatt was finished with acting. Immediately after graduating High School, he set out to join the professional rodeo circuit. He competed all summer long and would ride professional rodeo for several years, winning among other competitions the Ramona Rodeo in 1986.

“He never called me anything but my character’s name “Homer” while we were on the set,” said Pyeatt, now 48 and a construction superintendent with RQ Construction. “But just the fact that John Wayne recognized me and would say hello was a big thrill. For a little boy to have the Duke say good morning to you — well, it made your chest stick out.”

Pyeatt on Horseback, “I was a cowboy. Rodeo and the people involved in Rodeo — those were my people. That’s who I wanted to be around,” said Pyeatt. Photos courtesy of Mike Pyeatt

Pyeatt, a Ramona resident for over 20 years, is married to Cevin Hartwell, whose family once owned the City Barber Shop on Main Street. They have two teen-age daughters — Mara and Cora. He coaches softball in his spare time and lately has started thinking again about horse riding and Rodeo — the sport that earned him awards and notoriety, but which he gave up to raise a family.

Filming the Movie: “My dad had worked on the set of “The Hellfighters,” but I had never met the Duke at that point. All us kids were intimidated. He was a big, big man. Huge hands. Mark used that nervousness in the first scenes we had with Wayne, where we all came asking for jobs as trail-hands,” said Pyeatt. “That’s one of the things Mark really did well. He worked with each one of us and used all the natural talents we had to make the acting look as realistic as possible.”

“I was a cowboy. Rodeo and the people involved in Rodeo — those were my people. That’s who I wanted to be around,” said Pyeatt.

Rydell and Wayne rehearsing the fight scene: Pyeatt remembers Wayne joking to Dern that when people saw the fight, Dern would become the most hated man in America. “The problem was that became the truth. It was no joke,” said Pyeatt. "The first time I watched the movie with a real audience, I could see the emotion. People were really torn up after that scene.” Photos courtesy of Mike Pyeatt

Born in Baytown, Texas in 1957, Pyeatt’s father found work in the film industry, driving cattle trucks for use in the 1969 film “The Reivers.” Based on the novel by William Faulkner and starring Steve McQueen, the film was also the directorial debut for Rydell.

John Wayne & Mark Rydell: “He (Wayne) was everything about this country tied up in a 6’-4” frame, with a face that was at the same time, strong, arrogant, vulnerable and uncertain,” said Rydell.

"I got a small part in that film as an extra, but Mark remembered me. A year later I was asked to read for “The Cowboys.” At that point in my life, I had been riding horses and competing for several years,” said Pyeatt.

He said he had never read a complete script before “The Cowboys” and in fact was told by Rydell not to even look at the script, before shooting. He received the same advise from one of his neighbors — Oscar winning actor and cowboy legend Ben Johnson.

“Ben Johnson was a family friend. He’d just won the Oscar for “The Last Picture Show” at the time we were making “The Cowboys.” Both he and Mark said the best thing for me to do was not to try and act, but just be myself,” recalled Pyeatt.

Pyeatt described the first day he was on the set and met Wayne.

“My dad had worked on the set of “The Hellfighters,” but I had never met the Duke at that point. All us kids were intimidated. He was a big, big man. Huge hands. Mark used that nervousness in the first scenes we had with Wayne, where we all came asking for jobs as trail-hands,” said Pyeatt. “That’s one of the things Mark really did well. He worked with each one of us and used all the natural talents we had to make the acting look as realistic as possible.”

“The Cowboys” was a controversial film when it opened in January of 1972. America was still deeply divided over the Vietnam War and the cultural changes taking place during the 1960s. Though set in the western confines of Texas and the Great Planes of 1878, the film is nevertheless a commentary on the generational battles of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The film depicts an aging rancher named Wil Anderson who needs to drive his cattle to market and has suddenly lost all his hands when they rush off in search of easier money. The man is despondent at the way the generation coming up has abandoned the work ethic and honor that defined his time.

“In my day a man would stick with you on a hand shake,” says Wayne’s character Wil Anderson after his ranch-hands have abandoned their job to search for gold.

Desperate, he is convinced by a friend to consider a group of school age boys — the oldest barely 15 — who seem eager to prove themselves. He hires the boys and in the process teaches them about work, responsibility — and what it means to stand up for the values that guide a man’s life.

By that point, Wayne had long since eclipsed being a popular actor. He was now a living American icon — revered by many in a way few presidents ever rate. Rydell knew that no other actor symbolized (for both good or bad) how Americans were viewed around the world — and more to the point, how we saw ourselves.

“He was everything about this country tied up in a 6’-4” frame, with a face that was at the same time, strong, arrogant, vulnerable and uncertain,” said Rydell in a 1995 interview.

For the roles of the boys in “The Cowboys” Rydell hired five who were actors and six who were real cowboys — rodeo and ranch horse riders with little or no acting experience. Pyeatt noted that the divisions so rampant in society also initially existed on the set between the two groups of boys. But Pyeatt said those divisions soon vanished as the cast and crew got to know each other.

“Early on we separated ourselves — the cowboys from the acting boys,” said Pyeatt. “Us cowboys considered most of the acting boys as hippies. Their hair was long and that was not a part of our world. We made fun of them a little at first and I'm sure they were laughing at us too for being cowboys with short hair. But we spent two-and-a-half months on location in New Mexico. During the week, it was all business. But on Sundays, we'd have fish-frys and the boys would all hang out together. We all became pretty good friends working on that picture,” said Pyeatt.

In addition to Wayne and the boys, the film also starred Bruce Dern, Roscoe Lee Brown and Colleen Dewhurst. In the case of Dern's character — the long-haired rustler Aissa Watts — Rydell clearly wanted to evoke the imagery and angst most Americans were feeling at that time towards another long-haired villain...Charles Manson. In a brilliant performance, Dern delivered a bad guy lacking in any sense of moral limitations, while mocking everything Wayne’s character stood for. He slapped young boys and bullied them. He threatened one of the boys who accidentally came upon the rustlers.

“I’ll come to you some night when it’s dark. I’m gonna come to you on tip-toe” said Dern’s character, all the while holding a knife to the petrified boy’s throat and evoking images of the Manson killings. During the crucial fight sequence between Wayne and Dern — in which Watts kills Anderson by shooting him in the back — Pyeatt remembers everyone on the set was stunned at the awful reality of the scene.

“I was not a hunter and had never seen anything shot at that point,” noted Pyeatt. “Those squids (red dye packets) they used to simulate a bullet wound looked real. And that fight scene went on for hours. Duke insisted on doing all the stunt work himself and he was not in the best of health. He’d had cancer surgery eight years before and that was causing him some difficulties. But he wanted the fight to look as real as possible and he didn’t want anyone else to stand in for him.”

Pyeatt said Dern had become a buddy to the boys on the set and was friends with Wayne by the time they shot the scene. He remembers Wayne joking to Dern that when people saw the fight, Dern would become the most hated man in America.

“The problem was that became the truth. It was no joke,” said Pyeatt. “The first time I watched the movie with a real audience, I could see the emotion. People were really torn up after that scene. They were visibly outraged...and later in the film, when the boys kill the rustlers in revenge, the audiences cheered.”

Dern’s performance was so well done and the fight scene so realistic, he reportedly received death threats for years afterwards. Wayne himself was forced to publicly declare that Dern was just a good actor, a friend of his, and should not be threatened for performing a part in a movie.

“The Cowboys” was a hit with audiences. The film spawned a television series, though Pyeatt did not participate in the show. A few years after being part of “The Cowboys,” Pyeatt’s father moved his family to Colorado. By the time he’d reached his 16th birthday, Mike Pyeatt was finished with acting. Immediately after graduating High School, he set out to join the professional rodeo circuit. He competed all summer long and would ride professional rodeo for several years, winning among other competitions the Ramona Rodeo in 1986.

The Duke’s been gone 26 years now, but of course there is never a day when you can’t see his image on a television screen. His presence in the conscience of the American psyche is still powerful and defining. For Pyeatt -—living out a fantasy so many other boys (including this writer) would have paid a million bucks to have had — Wayne was a larger than life reality who he saw everyday up close during a Summer more than 33 years in the past. Now middle-aged, with a wife and two daughters — he can still turn on a television or enter a video store during any given day and see his boyhood face next to an image of the Duke’s. And for every time he is able to do that, there is always the same reaction he had when he was 14 and Wayne would wave hello.

“It still makes my chest stick out,” said Pyeatt with a big grin.

Photos courtesy of Mike Pyeatt