The Train Robbers is an above-average John Wayne actioner, written and directed by Burt Kennedy with suspense, comedy and humanism not usually found in the formula.
Kennedy goes for silhouettes and, as I’ve mentioned, for the kind of carefully casual arrangements of figures we find in samurai films - the Japanese Western.
The result is a movie that isolates the John Wayne mystique and surrounds it with the necessary simplicity and directness.
Burt Kennedy wrote and directed the movie, which consists mostly of scenic rides on horseback, waiting for the outlaws to appear, and talking wisely while waiting. [22 Mar 1973, p.83]
Released at a time when the western was undergoing some radical changes thanks to films by Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah, The Train Robbers harkens back to the old style westerns Wayne helped make famous. What's lacking is substance and style.
The band ride after half a million's worth of stolen gold so they can turn it in for the 50,000 dollars reward; it's that sort of film. Loads of male camaraderie and big country theme music, plus Ann-Margret riding along as a box-office concession and to get the rest of the cast horny in a U Certificate sort of way.