Not all remakes are created equal, and when a French director sets out to remake one of the undeniable classics of cinema, John Ford‘s The Searchers, you’d expect an uproar from movie fans. However, Les Cowboys is only inspired by The Searchers because its set over the last two decades set with the backdrop of radical Islamic terrorism. With direction from A Prophet writer Thomas Bidegain, Les Cowboys takes the premise of a man searching for his missing kin to the point of desperation and reveals how the modern world doesn’t make it any easier.
Alain (François Damiens) takes his wife, teenager daughter, and young son attend an American country music festival in 1994 in their native France. However, at the end of the festival Alain’s daughter has disappeared. He later discovers that she has run off with her radicalized Muslim boyfriend and has no intention of being found. Alain begins a multiyear search for his daughter. However, Alain is no John Wayne, and Les Cowboys goes in completely different directions than the masterpiece that inspired it, including an unexpected, but very welcome, appearance by John C. Reilly as a mysterious American.
The most significant difference between Les Cowboys and The Searchers in terms of the plot setup is that the missing girl in The Searchers was taken unwillingly while Alain’s daughter willingly joined with radical Islam (brainwashed or not). That alone should demonstrate that despite being inspired by The Searchers, Les Cowboys takes a very different path — not just because it takes place in today’s world, but because Les Cowboys deals with a very different culture and threat than John Wayne ever had to contend with. But in many ways modern day Pakistan is similar to the Wild West, and director Thomas Bidegain and cinematographer Arnaud Potier do their best to make the terrain look as impressive as Monument Valley.
At 114 minutes, Les Cowboys is five minutes shorter than The Searchers, and because it is less action-packed and far less majestic it doesn’t sustain as well as the original. But as a meditation on the cultural clash of the West struggling with radical Islam, Les Cowboys reveals desperation on both sides at trying to understand the viewpoints of the other culture. Upon its conclusions, you’ll understand how some are forever haunted by the decisions they make.
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