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 This is by far the best movie I have ever seen, or will ever see! The most realistic western ever made. It was not glamorized by any Hollywood standard. The locations, clothing and acting were completely convincing. You have to love a movie that can cause grown men to laugh and cry....no matter how many times they have seen it. A truly amazing picture!!!
Many Thanks,
STREETS OF LAREDO, the sequal, is nowhere near as good as its predecessor. That said, it is most definitely a good film. This time around, James Garner replaces Tommy Lee Jones as Captain Call. Though he isn't as good as Jones was (he was perfect), Garner was the best choice for taking over the role. Besides him, the rest of the cast does pretty well. One big disappoitment is the music; there is NONE! Sure, there's a soundtrack, but you won't remember one second of it (it's that bland). Westerns are supposed to have good music! The storyline is pretty good, and holds a lot of suspense. The worst of it comes near the second half with Call and that little Mexican girl. That was just weird, and had no place in this film or any other western. Plus, it stole this subplot from Clint Eastwood's superior PALE RIDER. Overall, certainly not a bad movie, but it ain't all that great, either. The least of the trilogy, DEAD MAN'S WALK, is a prequal to LONESOME DOVE, tracking Gus and Call's earlier days as Texas Rangers. I must say, the best actors were the ones who were on screen from anywhere from five (Brian Dennehy) to twenty minutes (F. Murray Abraham), and all of it is very disappointing that they don't get nearly enough screen time. The two leads have to carry the immeasurable burden of filling in the shoes of Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones/James Garner, and I gotta cut 'em some slack for that. But still, the whole time they're just doing impressions of their characters' older selves. And that girl who played Clara [was bad]! The plot of DEAD MAN'S WALK is for the most of it handled with mediocrity, especially the ending! The last twenty minutes are the absolute worst I've ever spent in front of a TV screen. But the one section that actually has to do with the Dead Man's Walk is, on the other hand, one of the most emotionally powrful I've ever seen. This thirty minutes almost makes up for the entire four hour mess............almost. All three DVDs are bare bones, and what is there is just plain "BLAH". Sadly, LONESOME DOVE, by far the best of all, receives the worst DVD treatment in terms of picture and sound quality. This boxed set is only really worth getting if you're a diehard western fan and insist on owning the enture series.
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If you can live with the out-dated visual effects, this is a mini-series really worth the time. A splendid charactirization of the west in all its colors, from comedy to tragedy. The movie is in constant motion with only few slow passages.
