Documentary filmmakers Will Francome and Mark Pizzey are traveling around the country to produce a unique set of documentaries on capital punishment in the U.S. As the filmmakers travel, they will create a One for Ten series of short documentaries about innocent people who were sentenced to death. These documentaries will be immediate, shot in one day and edited overnight in motel rooms. After each documentary is uploaded, viewers may contribute to the final versions of the films through suggestions, artwork, and other input.
As Fancome and Pizzey describe the project on their website: “One for Ten will be a completely new form of film-making, utilizing modern video technology, social networking, user generated content and a strong media and charity coalition to make what we like to think of as ‘democratic documentary'” They explain the project in more detail in the following video.
They will be on the road March and April driving across the United States, filming a different person every few days. For example, their blog recently announced that one of their movies will feature Kirk Bloodsworth, the first person who was sentenced to death who was exonerated by DNA evidence. They will release a new short film online every Tuesday and Friday. Below is their pilot 5-minute movie about Ray Krone, who was wrongfully sentenced to death in Arizona. Danny Glover narrates the short documentary.
Besides the interesting and cutting edge plan for the way Francome and Pizzey are making the movies, the project highlights problems with the U.S. death penalty. If innocent people can end up on death row, it shows that there are other underlying problems with the capital punishment system too. These and other reasons have led to states repealing the death penalty in recent years. Currently, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe are saying they would support ending the death penalty in their states too. And the Maryland Senate is close to voting on a bill that would repeal the death penalty. For more on the One for Ten project, check out the website or follow the project on Twitter.
Will you follow the progress as Fancome and Pizzey work their way across the country? Leave your two cents in the comments.
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.
