Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name by Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove boasts quite a cast of talented actors: Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Danny Glover, Robert Urich, Diane Lane, Anjelica Huston, and even a young Steve Buscemi, to name some. The smaller roles, the character actors, do a superb job as well.
But it is the writing that makes Lonesome Dove such a great work of art. It is the writing that attracted that kind of acting talent.
Every once in a while in literature and in films, I come across a character from whom I can learn a great deal.
Augustus "Gus" McCrae (played by Robert Duvall) is one such character.
He has some of the best lines that I've ever heard in film, and I envy his ability to look at the bright and humorous side in even the most dire of situations. If I could adopt Gus's attitude by even a quarter, I would be a much more relaxed person.
In films with good writing, it is better to include an excerpt from the script, as opposed to just talking about how good the writing is. Unfortunately, I've not been able to find the script on line.
The plot is that Gus and his friend, Woodrow Call, are two former Texas Rangers who have retired to a desolate town on the Mexican Border called Lonesome Dove. After an old friend, Jake Spoon, who is on the run from an Arkansas sheriff, shows up in Lonesome Dove and tells the men about the beauty of the Montana territory that he has visited, Woodrow decides to raise a herd of cattle and drive them from Texas up to Montana. Several of the townsmen go with him, and they all get into a number of adventures along the way.
Though best friends, Woodrow and Gus have very different personalities, and they argue and banter back and forth quite a bit. Their conversations are illuminating entertainment. The story is full of memorable quotes, especially from Gus. You have to hear the quotes in the context of the story to really appreciate them, though.
The characters are so well thought out and so consistent, but at the same time possess rare qualities. Lonesome Dove, like all the movies I have reviewed thus far, is a work of art that I enjoy watching and studying again and again.
I agree with the above assessment of the miniseries from Robert Duvall. It is arguably the best Western ever put on film. Unforgiven with Clint Eastwood is in the conversation as well, from the Westerns that I have seen, but I would not disagree with anyone who put Lonesome Dove at the top of the list.
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