A historian explains why The Cowboys is the most accurate Wild West film. Directed by Mark Rydell, the 1972 Western film follows a grizzled veteran rancher who recruits a group of inexperienced schoolboys as cowhands to get his cattle herd to market on time, though the drive is fraught with dangers, including a gang of rustlers trying to steal the herd. John Wayne leads the cast alongside Roscoe Lee Browne, Bruce Dern, Colleen Dewhurst, Robert Carradine, and Slim Pickens.
https://screenrant.com/the-cowboys-movie-western-accuracy-historian-expert-response/