Lonesome Dove

[Chief]

I"m telling you, no movie I've ever watched has as much impact on me as LD. I don't know what it is, its just the best movie I've ever seen. It never gets old. I could watch it over and over again.

And Gus and Call (two leading characters), are the best movie characters I've ever seen, and the way Tommy Lee Jones and Duvall play off each other is like no other actors I've ever seen.

If I had 1000 pages, I don't think I could ever express how good this movie was.

I know exactly how you feel.

It's by far my favorite movie/miniseries. I've lost count how many times I've seen it.

And I highly recommend reading the book. McMurtry goes into lots of things in the book that the movie has to sort of gloss over. You really get a feel for Woodrow's torment. He also goes into great detail about the wooden sign that Gus insists on taking with them. Lots of great details that the film doesn't have time to go into.

 

[Maikeru-sama]

Finished watching Commanche Moon last night. It was pretty good, although not as good as Lonesome Dove.

 

[Chief]

Just finished watching Lonesome Dove a few hours ago.

It was a very good movie.

Couple of things:

I hated that Gus was killed in the movie but it made it more emotional.

I wish Call would have told Newt that he was his father.

Danny Glover (the black guy) should have made it through the entire movie :laugh2: .

Im glad Blue Duck finally got what he deserved.

I was suprised that Gus and Cal ended up having to kill Jake Spoon.

I thought Dish and Laurie would eventually get together.

McMurtry has this thing about killing off the most popular characters, it seems.

I've often wondered how the film would be if some of those guys would have lived. The way he did, though, made it heart-wrenching.

What's sad is how the last two deaths were a chain reaction. If Woodrow wouldn't have been so insistent on retrieving the stolen horses, Deetz would have lived (and it's sickening how Gus, Woodrow and Deetz all just froze when that happened ... three guys who had reacted quickly and effectively in countless confrontations).

With Deetz gone, Gus had to assume the role as the lead tracker and his carelessness got the better of him.

Capt. Woodrow F. Call, however, is indestructable.

 

[Maikeru-sama]

McMurtry has this thing about killing off the most popular characters, it seems.

I've often wondered how the film would be if some of those guys would have lived. The way he did, though, made it heart-wrenching.

What's sad is how the last two deaths were a chain reaction. If Woodrow wouldn't have been so insistent on retrieving the stolen horses, Deetz would have lived (and it's sickening how Gus, Woodrow and Deetz all just froze when that happened ... three guys who had reacted quickly and effectively in countless confrontations).

With Deetz gone, Gus had to assume the role as the lead tracker and his carelessness got the better of him.

Capt. Woodrow F. Call, however, is indestructable.

Chief, does the novel give a definative answer on who Newt's father is?

Also, back in "those" days, did you just literally go to some place like Montana, build a ranch and claim the land as yours?

I thought the scene on Commanche Moon, where Jake leaves to go to Colorado, Gus tells him, "Don't get caught up with the wrong crowd...we would hate to have to hang you" was funny.

 

[Chief]

Chief, does the novel give a definative answer on who Newt's father is?

Also, back in "those" days, did you just literally go to some place like Montana, build a ranch and claim the land as yours?

I thought the scene on Commanche Moon, where Jake leaves to go to Colorado, Gus tells him, "Don't get caught up with the wrong crowd...we would hate to have to hang you" was funny.

It's been at least 10-12 years since I read the book, but if I remember right, it's clear that Woodrow is the father and he knows it.

I'm not sure how the land claim worked. Where I'm from, they had the Homestead Act where they had free land (160 acres per family), but there were a few strings attached (had to live on it a certain number of months out of the year, etc).

I don't know what the laws were in Montana during that time period. The cowboy character Jasper Fant mentions Custer getting wiped out, so it was after that, and Woodrow mentions getting up there "before the bankers and lawyers all get it."

 

[Maikeru-sama]

One other thing, in Lonesome Dove, everyone refers to Blue Duck as a "Half Breed", but in Commanche Moon, he seems to be a pure Commanche and the son of a chief.

Also, do you think they should have hanged Jake Spoon?

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

[youtube]E44VYR3tTE8[/youtube]

You didn't ask me Mick but so far as I'm concerned they should have. JMO

 

[CowboyWay]

A couple things..................

McMurtry had this book pretty much done back when he wrote it decades ago. But he never found a good name for the book so he literally thew the book into a drawer and forgot about it. Then one day he was driving by DFW airport and saw a church school bus that read "Lonesome dove baptist church"..... He went home, dug out the manuscripts and called it "LoneSome Dove". His feeling was the "Lonesome Dove" personified Newt. A good hearted kid, but who nobody claimed, and he was "lonesome".

In the beginning of the book they mentioned abe lincoln freeing the slaves, so it had to be after 1865. My guess is in the 1865-1880 range.

No, I don't think I could have hung Jake. I would have let him go. But thats just me.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Well, if you refere to the events the picture was based upon, the year was probably 1867 or so. The Loving Goodnight trail is the basis and I believe that the last big drive made by Loving, Goodnight and Bose Ikard (Deeds) was in 1867, I believe.

 

[Chief]

I've read this in several different places (most recently in the American Cowboy magazine). Interesting:

McMurtry originally developed the tale in 1972 for a feature film entitled The Streets of Laredo (a title later used for the sequel), which was to have starred John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and James Stewart, and be directed by Peter Bogdanovich, but plans fell through. McMurtry later resurrected the screenplay as a full-length novel, which became a bestseller and won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[1]


As great as Wayne, Fonda and Stewart were, I'm not convinced they could have done better than Duvall, Jones and Urich. The chemistry between Gus and Call was greatness. McMurtry caught lightening in a bottle with those two.

 

[Chief]

Well, if you refere to the events the picture was based upon, the year was probably 1867 or so. The Loving Goodnight trail is the basis and I believe that the last big drive made by Loving, Goodnight and Bose Ikard (Deeds) was in 1867, I believe.

It had to have been after 1876 because one of the cowboys, Jasper Fant, mentioned Custer getting wiped out.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

It had to have been after 1876 because one of the cowboys, Jasper Fant, mentioned Custer getting wiped out.

That's a good point. In actuallity, I don't believe that Loving and Goodnight ever actually drove a heard to Montana. I think that part of the book was fiction. The last drive of record that Loving and Goodnight made was completed in 1868 I believe and it was made to Cheyenne. I believe that it was the only drive of presidents that the two made after the Civil War so if we are just talking about historical basis, this would probably be the time frame.

As far as the move goes, I don't know.

 

[Maikeru-sama]

[youtube]E44VYR3tTE8[/youtube]

You didn't ask me Mick but so far as I'm concerned they should have. JMO

That's one hell of a scene right there.

I thought they were going to let Jake Spoon go. I bet it was hard for them to hang him but as Gus says, you hang with outlaws you gotta die with them too.

 

[ethiostar]

Gus: A man that will go along with five killin's is taking his leaving awful slow. (talking about Jake)
_____________

Outlaw gang member: Where is he going? (referring to Capt. Call as he walks away after they caught and disarmed the gang while Gus keeps an eye on them)
Gus: To pick out a tree to hang you from, son.


Oh there are just so many more.

[youtube]E44VYR3tTE8[/youtube]

You didn't ask me Mick but so far as I'm concerned they should have. JMO

Great clip ABQ, it has two of my favorite lines from that movie.

 

[Chief]

My favorite lines are all the banter around the table during the first 20 minutes of the movie:

Woodrow: "If you ever get tired of loafin', I reckon you could get a job waiting tables."

Gus: "I had a job waitin tables once. I wasn't no older than Newt. But I had to give it up.

Newt: "Why?"

Gus: "Well, I was too young and pretty, and the ****** wouldn't let me alone."

---------------

Jake: "Damn mule-skinner threw down on me in a saloon and I shot back at him with a buffalo gun and kilt a dentist.

Gus: "He was just in the wrong place?"

Jake: "Actually, he was walking down the street, but a plank wall won't stop no fifty caliber bullet."

Gus: "But a dentist will."

Jake: (Laughing) "Dropped him dead. Bad luck all around."

Gus: "Well, nobody likes a dentist anyway."

 

[Danny White]

I thought Dish and Laurie would eventually get together.

If I'm not mistaken, in one of the sequels, Pea Eye ends up marrying Laurie.

 

[CowboyWay]

My favorite lines are all the banter around the table during the first 20 minutes of the movie:

Woodrow: "If you ever get tired of loafin', I reckon you could get a job waiting tables."

Gus: "I had a job waitin tables once. I wasn't no older than Newt. But I had to give it up.

Newt: "Why?"

Gus: "Well, I was too young and pretty, and the ****** wouldn't let me alone."

---------------

Jake: "Damn mule-skinner threw down on me in a saloon and I shot back at him with a buffalo gun and kilt a dentist.

Gus: "He was just in the wrong place?"

Jake: "Actually, he was walking down the street, but a plank wall won't stop no fifty caliber bullet."

Gus: "But a dentist will."

Jake: (Laughing) "Dropped him dead. Bad luck all around."

Gus: "Well, nobody likes a dentist anyway."

Absolutely couldn't agree more. The first 10 minutes of that movie are some of the greatest lines I every heard.

"Mescan strawberries"...............

 

[Hostile]

Absolutely couldn't agree more. The first 10 minutes of that movie are some of the greatest lines I every heard.

"Mescan strawberries"...............

Pea, it ain't polite to relieve yourself within earshot of people tryin to eat their breakfast."

"Well, Deets ain't one to give up on a garment."

The scene where Gus read's Deets' tombstone kills me every time.

"Woodrow, it's been quite a party ain't it?" Death.

Powerful, powerful movie.

 

[Chief]

Pea, it ain't polite to relieve yourself within earshot of people tryin to eat their breakfast."

"Well, Deets ain't one to give up on a garment."

The scene where Gus read's Deets' tombstone kills me every time.

"Woodrow, it's been quite a party ain't it?" Death.

Powerful, powerful movie.

Yep, so many good lines.

Right down to his last breath, Gus was his usual self.

Call: "Why do you need legs for anyway? All you do is sit around."

Gus: "I might want to kick a pig."