The original Lonesome Dove is one of the finest miniseries and westerns. Lonesome Dove, based on the novel by Larry McMurtry, originally ran on television in 1989. It followed the adventures of Augustus “Gus” McRae, played by Robert Duvall, and Woodrow F. Call, played by Tommy Lee Jones, and also featured Diane Lane, Danny Glover, Anjelica Huston, and Chris Cooper.
Lonesome Dove’s success spawned several sequels and prequels. Maybe you have not seen any of them and are wondering where to start, or maybe you have seen Lonesome Dove and wondered whether the others are worth your time. Well, Chimesfreedom is grading each series on a scale of 1-10, addressing each one in chronological order by the time period covered. In this post, we rate the prequels as well as the original Lonesome Dove. Future posts will address other series in the franchise.
Dead Man’s Walk (1996)
Set in the early 1840’s, Dead Man’s Walk follows the adventures of a young Gus and Woodrow, including a deadly forced walk across a desert after they are captured by the Mexican Army. Generally, the acting is good, featuring standout performances by Keith Carradine and Edward James Olmos. Johnny Lee Miller also does a very good job as the young Woodrow Call, while David Arquette’s portrayal of Gus leaves one wondering how the goofy young man survived to be the competent westerner portrayed in Lonesome Dove by Robert Duvall.
Overall, the characters are engaging and the story and suspense are very good in Dead Man’s Walk, with the small exception of an odd sequence of events at the end to help Gus and Woodrow get home, leaving one thinking, “WTF?” Rating: 7
Comanche Moon (2008)
Comanche Moon follows a little older Woodrow and Gus in the 1850s-1860s. Of all of the series, this one has the fewest big name actors, with Val Kilmer as the sole major movie star in an odd over-the-top character performance.
You will recognize other actors from TV, such as Linda Cardellini (from Freaks & Geeks and ER) as Clara. Steve Zahn, who often plays the comic sidekick in movies like That Thing You Do!, plays Gus McRae. His performance largely mimics Robert Duvall’s acting in Lonesome Dove, and it grew on me. You may enjoy the Robert Duvall impersonation or be annoyed by it.
You may recognize other faces too. Karl Urban, the Dr. McCoy in the new Star Trek franchise, plays Woodrow Call. Additionally, Wes Studi (Dances with Wolves, Last of the Mohicans) stars as Buffalo Hump, the father of Blue Duck, who features more prominently in the original Lonesome Dove.
Comanche Moon probably received the worst reviews of all of the Lonesome Dove series. And it has the weakest stand-alone story and acting of the series.
But unlike Dead Man’s Walk, which just told an adventure story using two of the main characters from Lonesome Dove, Comanche Moon provides a back story of the characters to set up Lonesome Dove, like the way the Star Wars prequels did. If you really love Lonesome Dove, you might want to see more of the background of the familiar characters, how Newt was born, how the town of Lonesome Dove got started, how Gus lost Clara, etc. But some things may be better left to the imagination. Rating: 5
Lonesome Dove (1989): The Classic
Lonesome Dove is the cream of the crop of all of the Lonesome Dove series. The series follows an aging Gus and Woodrow in the 1870s out for one last big adventure, while also conveying a meditation on friendship, aging, family, mortality, and the end of the West. By far, of all the series, this one has the best story, the best acting, the best music, etc.
Lonesome Dove is not only the best of this series, it ranks with the greatest Western films of all-time. Time Out London recently ranked it among the Top 50 Westerns, although I’d rank it even higher than they did. Robert Duvall recently said in Esquire (Jan. 2011): “When I finished Lonesome Dove, I said to myself, Now I can retire. I’ve done something. Let the English play Hamlet. I’ll play Augustus McCrae.” Amen. The book won the Pulitzer Prize and the series won seven Emmys. Rating: 10
Another Prequel?
In 2014, the movie Lonesome Dove Church, directed by Terry Miles and starring Tom Berenger, was released. Is there any connection between the film and the Lonesome Dove series? Promotional material for the movie, including an interview with Berenger, make no reference to the series. But Barnes & Noble claims that the movie is a prequel to the series started by Larry McMurtry.
Lonesome Dove Church is advertised as the true story of the founding of the Lonesome Dove Church in Grapevine, Texas. Berenger plays a preacher in the old West who works to save his outlaw son and eventually build a church.
Because the church is named after the preacher sees a dove and because it is located in a town called Grapevine, it is likely that the church in the series has nothing to do with the fictional town created by Larry McMurtry. Yet, McMurtry has noted that he came up with the name “Lonesome Dove” while eating at a steakhouse and seeing a church bus for Lonesome Dove Baptist Church from Southlake, Texas. Thus, while Lonesome Dove Church is a decent but not great Western, we are not going to discuss it further in the context of the Lonesome Dove universe.
In Part 2 of this series, Chimesfreedom will consider the Lonesome Dove miniseries that take place after Lonesome Dove, including how the network struggled to keep one main character alive while author Larry McMurtry summarily killed the character with merely a sentence. Check out all four posts on Rating the Lonesome Dove Series.
(Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)
Karl Urban (who you mention is in the new Star Trek) plays an awesome guy from Rohan in the LOTR movies and is an awesome assassin in one of the Bourne movies. I’ve been saying he’s a guy I would go to the movies to watch read the phone book, but I don’t know if I should break my long-standing “no star trek” streak just to see him. . .
It is funny how Karl Urban looks completely different as Eomer (I had to look up the name) in “Lord of the Rings” than in “Lonesome Dove” and “Star Trek,” etc. I did not make the connection to “The Bourne Supremacy,” which all might be signs of a good actor going into a role.
I recently re-watched the new “Star Trek.” It is not the best movie in the franchise, but if you are a Karl Urban fan, you might like the film. The movie is more modern looking and has a lot of action, so those are other reasons it might appeal to a non-Star Trek fan. Thanks for the comment.
Thank you for these reviews. I agree with your assessment. Carradine, Olmos, and Miller truly make “Dead Man’s Walk.” Arquette isn’t a bad Gus; he’s just written that way 🙂 On the other hand, while Urban is a good actor, he feels miscast as Call, in “Comanche Moon.”
My main problem with both prequels is the same for the novels as the miniseries (miniserieses?) McMurtry contradicts a great deal in the prequels of what he established in “Lonesome Dove.” “Lonesome Dove” tells us that Clara chose to marry Bob Allen over Gus for several reasons, but none of them were “he’d cheated on her and she left town in anger” as she does in CM. It’s also quite clear that Clara hates and has always hated Woodrow Call, and his close friendship with Gus, but in DMW, Clara seems more into “Corporal Call,” making Gus almost an also-ran. One of the most powerful bits of Call’s introspection in LD is the Maggie flashback, which is pretty clear that his relationship with her was short, and ended at the point that he finally spoke her name (the miniseries just as Gus accusing him of never using her name, but it’s hard to put introspection to film). In DMW, Call uses Maggie’s name and starts a relationship with her decades before Newt will be born. In CM, they are still more or less a couple, though he’s non-committal, and he uses her name throughout that too. Unlike the sad reference in LD to Maggie dying, still a “whore,” of illness and loneliness after Call stops coming by, CM has her giving up prostitution and getting a job as a clerk at a store. The retroactive continuity drives me crazy, which fits the ratings you gave both prequels.
Still… decent acting and beautiful cinematography make both worth watching for a LD fan, especially if we don’t go in with high expectations. Nothing can match the brilliance of “Lonesome Dove.”
Wes Studi? Any western movie with Wes Studi makes it an instance watch. How could you neglect mentioning him as a star credit?
I agree he’s a wonderful actor and have added his name. Thanks for the comment!
You are so right. There is no good excuse for me leaving out Wes Studi. (“Last of the Mohicans” was also brilliant work).