I really really tried to enjoy this. I was all ready to get my heart hooked like in the original and hold on for an "e ticket " ride like at Disneyworld. Instead, all I got was a merry-go-round with the same plot as many westerns before it, played over and over again. I don't understand it because all of the right elements were in place. Granted John Voight is no Captain Call I still thought he did a good job with what little he had to work with. He was the only good thing about it as he captured the essence of the character Tommy Lee Jones laid out for him. Rick Schroeder, who did a great job in Lonesome Dove, seemed more lost than his character Newt usually is. The same for goes for Chris Cooper's character July. Barbara Hershey didn't come close to Angelica Huston's gumption and likability. They all seemed to be struggling to understand where this was going too. I'd comment on the plot line if I knew what it was. It just seemed like characters were thrown in to see what would stick. Larry McMurtry probably threw a fit when he saw the truly thin plot line on screen. It just dances round with no true direction. With the star power that was at their disposal (Oliver Reed, Louis Gossett Jr. and Reese Witherspoon to name a few) you'd have thought they would have gotten a much stronger sequel. Maybe not up to the standard of the original but somewhere in the neighborhood at least.
With Lonesome Dove everyone's character was well-rounded, well-written and rock solid. Although YOU didn't know where the story was headed, you got the feeling it was headed in a definite but unpredictable direction. Not so with this, this.....you know, I'm not quite sure what to call it, but whatever it is,
it wouldn't be good.
NO, NOT LONESOME DOVE...BUT STILL A GREAT WESTERN!
Admittedly, there will never be another one like the original LONESOME DOVE. Tommy Lee Jones is, arguably, irreplaceable as the irascible Woodrow F. Call and, fortunately, with Gus's demise in the original we didn't have to worry about a replacement for Robert Duvall in the role of Augustus McCrae.
So let's just put all that aside when considering RETURN TO LONESOME DOVE, shall we?
From the standpoint of the purists, no, this is not the official-Larry-McMurtry-written sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. But who cares?! I certainly don't. DEADMAN'S WALK, COMANCHE MOON and STREETS OF LAREDO, the actual McMurty-written co-volumes in the saga, are not diminished in the least by RETURN... Keep that carefully in mind.
This movie, when seen in the right light -- without the biases that naturally arise among the LONESOME DOVE faithful and viewed, for all intents and purposes, as an independent film -- is a truly wonderful Western! The characters are compelling and interesting and the story is certainly a worthy epilog to the original LONESOME DOVE.
Woodrow F. Call, played by John Voight, is returning from his pilgrimage to bury McCrae and determines to take something back. He decides to drive a herd of Texas mustangs to Montana in order to continue his activities in the horse business. Characteristically Call would certainly do this in order to view things as not being a total waste. The story blossoms nicely as he adds former Texas Ranger, Gideon Walker, played wonderfully by a younger William Peterson, now of CSI fame, and Isom Pickett, a horseman and rancher played by Louis Gossett, Jr., to assist in the adventure. And, like the original, RETURN... abounds in triumph and tragedy as Captain Call and his compadres work to live out their dreams and aspirations with all the honor they can muster.
Members of the original cast including Rick Schroeder as Newt, Tim Scott as Pea-Eye Parker, William Sanderson as Lippy, Barry Tubb as Jasper Fant and Chris Cooper as July Johnson are joined by a great cast of newcomers including, in addition to Voight, Peterson and Gossett, Jr., Barbara Hershey as Clara Allen, Oliver Reed as the over-zealous visionary rancher Gregor Dunnegan, Reese Witherspoon as Dunnegan's much younger and impetuous wife, Ferris, Nia Peeples as Agostina Vega, and Dennis Haysbert (late of the hit TV series, 24) as a worthy successor to the Half-Breed Blue Duck in the original, the sinister outlaw, Cherokee Jack Jackson.
Okay, we all agree, then, that there was and never will be anything like the original LONESOME DOVE. Right? But if you give this one a break as a great Western movie in its own right I promise you won't be sorry.
THE HORSEMAN
great sequel to the first
Return is my favorite Lonesome Dove next to the original. This is wonderful.
Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones star as Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call, aging cowboys and former Texas rangers and who organize a 2,500 mile cattle drive for one last great adventure in this excellent 1989 miniseries adaptation of Larry McMurtry's novel. The best friends, who steal the herd from a gang of Mexican cattle rustlers, drive their herd from Texas to Montana, battling horse thieves, angry Indian tribes, and a renegade half-breed killer named Blue Duck (Frederic Forrest) on a mission of revenge. The excellent cast also includes Robert Urich as cardsharp and former Ranger Jake Spoon, Anjelica Huston as McCrae's old flame Clara Allen, Danny Glover, Ricky Schroder, Diane Lane, Chris Cooper, D.B. Sweeney, Steve Buscemi, and even a small role for author Larry McMurtry. Australian... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Simon Wincer DVD Release Date: Released the 30 April 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Lonesome Dove began life as a Larry McMurtry screenplay written for the big screen, with John Wayne, James Stewart, and Henry Fonda in mind for the roles of aging Texas Rangers Gus McCrae, Woodrow Call, and Jake Spoon. That too-good-to-be-true project never happened, and McMurtry shelved the story for some years and then revived it as a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The latter was subsequently adapted for the glorious 1989 television miniseries starring Robert Duvall as Gus, one of the most endearing and heroic figures to come out of Old West mythology, Tommy Lee Jones as the equally noble but taciturn Woodrow, and Robert Urich as their fallen comrade, Jake. Set in the late 19th century in a sleepy Texas town, we meet Gus and Woodrow long after they put their days of settling... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Robert Duvall DVD Release Date: Released the 30 April 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The critical and popular success of the Lonesome Dove miniseries just about ensured a sequel or three. The first spinoff, Return to Lonesome Dove, was rushed out without author Larry McMurtry's input, but Streets of Laredo, which McMurtry scripted from his own novel, returns us firmly to his brutal West. Legendary Texas Ranger Captain Woodrow Call (James Garner, who steps into the boots left by Tommy Lee Jones with comfortable assurance and understated courage) has turned bounty hunter, and he heads off on the bloody trail of vicious Mexican gunman Joey Garza (Alexis Cruz), a sadistic, angry south-of-the-border rebel without a cause. Lonesome Dove echoes through the story: Call's former trail hand Pea Eye Parker (Sam Shepard) is enlisted in his posse and... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): James Garner - Sissy Spacek Director(s): Joseph Sargent DVD Release Date: Released the 24 April 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Dead Man's Walk is yet another great Lonesome Dove DVD. It's too bad they didn't make a regular series about the adventures of young Gus and Woodrow. It's not too late. Give us a TV series somebody! More Info about this DVD Actor(s): F. Murray Abraham - Keith Carradine - Patricia Childress Director(s): Yves Simoneau DVD Release Date: Released the 23 October 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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In the tradition of Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo, this three-hour Hallmark miniseries ranks among the finest TV Westerns ever produced. With a deft balance of rugged action and richly drawn characters, Johnson County War captures the essence--if not the precise historical details--of the range wars that raged between Wyoming homesteaders and cattle barons in the early 1890s. Fighting for the legal settlers are the Hammett brothers Cain, Harry, and Dale (Tom Berenger, Luke Perry, Adam Storke), along with Dale's tough-as-leather wife (Michelle Forbes) and an ill-fated whore (Rachel Ward) who stands proudly against the hired gun (Burt Reynolds) who terrorizes the region for his cowardly British employers. Reynolds is too contemporary for his role, but he's a... More Info about this DVD Director(s): David S. Cass Sr. DVD Release Date: Released the 24 September 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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