Lonesome Dove | Eastern NC Now

    An interesting side note that needs to be mentioned here, and a testament to their unique thespian talents and their make-up, is that Tommy Lee Jones is actually nearly 15 years younger than Robert Duvall. In the film, they are successful in appearing to be close in age as one would expect them to be with some much history between Gus and Woodrow.

    To exemplify this aforementioned incredible acting of the entire cast, in the second installment, "On the Trail", we find that the former whore Lorena Wood, played be a very young Diane Lane, who was along on the trail drive as promised by Jake Spoon to be taken to San Francisco, is abducted by the Kiowa murderous bandit Blue Duck, played by Frederick Forest, a notorious desperado known for the rape, murder and pillage of numerous people in the southwestern United States. Also during this installment, we meet future Oscar winner Chris Cooper as Fort Smith, Arkansas Sheriff July Johnson, and in a small role as a plains traveler, Luke, is then unknown actor Steve Buscemi.

    In the third installment, "The Plains", with the affable former Texas Ranger Scout Joshua Deets, played by Danny Glover, pointing the way to the virtually unsettled Montana territory, we, as the captivated audience, are encountered with more adversity, more sorrow, and more of what well exemplified the making of America. America was built by adventurous capitalists, like Woodrow F. Call, hardworking, driven men, who would sacrifice all to achieve an objective. In this case, the first Montana ranch in existence was the objective, the lives of Woodrow's dearest friends was the sacrifice.

    In well delivered lines suggesting not only the mood of the moment, but foreshadowing events yet to occur, Josh Deets, Danny Glover, queried:

    Joshua Deets: [in the Wyoming Badlands] "What we doin' up here, Captain? This ain't our land."

    Gus McCrae: "Woodrow is determined to be the first man to graze cattle in Montana, even if it kills all of us."

    Joshua Deets: "Don't seem right, Captain. A man ought not to leave his land and his people."

    It was a rough trail drive across land that few frontier folk had seen or traveled, and Gus McRae, who had little interest in the industry of work, was, however, a true champion in the saving of young lovely damsels, such as the former whore, Lorena Wood (Lorie darlin'), played by Diane Lane. Robert Duvall is a masterful actor, whose characters are nuanced by mannerisms, cadence of expression, and resolved to believability. I, for one, can easily believe that the slight Robert Duvall can both slaughter a horde of renegades, as well as he can humor a crowd of cowboys, or squire a bevy a lovely ladies, which he did - Lorie darlin' and Clara Allen, played by Angelica Houston - the love of Augustus's life, now living near Ogallala, Nebraska.
When Jake Spoon leaves Lorena, Diane Lane, unattended, and heads off to San Antonio to, as Woodrow names it, "drink and gamble", she is despondent, her dreams of Jake escorting her to San Francisco all but over: Above. When Blue Duck abducts her to parlay her into a ruinous trade with the most unsavory of characters, he employs that same platoon of renegades to kill a pursuing and courageous Captain McRae, Robert Duvall. Really bad odds ... for the renegades: Below.
    If there was a purpose for Augustus leaving his easy chair on his ramshackle porch in Lonesome Dove it was seeing Clara, Angelica Houston, one more time. For Woodrow Call it was for taking advantage of the free use of abundant Montana grassland, to graze the cows and horses that he had stolen on raids down in Mexico, just across the Rio Grande. For everyone else, they followed Captain Call's orders, irrespective of what followed. After all, 'they say he was a man of vision.'

    Not rated, but would probably be a PG-13 due to subject matter, some language and violence. Featured on CBS in 1989.

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