Lonesome Dove (1989) Starring Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Danny Glover, Diane Lane, Robert Urich, Frederic Forrest, D.
B. Sweeny, Ricky Schroder, Angelica Huston, Chris Cooper, Timothy Scott, Glenne Headly, Barry Corbin, Jorge Martinez de Hoyos.
Directed by: Simon Wincer
Written by: Larry McMurtry (novel), William Witliffe (teleplay)
Original Running Time: 384 minutes
Lonesome Dove is star studded western
miniseries that depicts a 2,500 mile cattle drive, beginning in south Texas and ending in Montana. First airing in February 1989, Lonesome Dove won numerous awards including: Best Miniseries, Best Performance by an Actor, Outstanding Achievement in Drama, Program of the Year and Television Feature Film of the Year, among many others. In total, Lonesome Dove won seven Emmy Awards and was nominated for twelve others.
The miniseries depicts two retired Texas Rangers (Augustus McCrae played by Robert Duvall and Woodrow F. Call played by Tommy Lee Jones) who are running a small ranch in South Texas. Both are bored with the current situation until an old friend from their ranger days suggests that they travel north, where they would become the first cattle ranchers in Montana. At first McCrae and Call are skeptical, but the lure of adventure and something else to do becomes too strong. They accumulate a herd of cattle and horses (mostly by stealing them from bandits south of the border), hire several hands and begin their cattle drive.
Along the way, they encounter horse thieves, renegade Indians, harsh conditions, and even old friends. It is a difficult journey of personal discovery and tragedy. While the ultimate goals of the cattle drive were successful (becoming the first cattle ranch in Montana), the personal costs were very high (the deaths of several of the hands including Captain McCrae).
The original story written by Larry McMurtry was a Pulitzer Prize winning novel and was the first book of the Lonesome Dove series. The story was originally designed to cast John Wayne as McCrae, Jimmy Stewart as Call and Henry Fonda as happy go lucky ranger, Jake Spoon. These plans, however did not come to fruition as John Wayne could not commit to the movie. Consequently, both Stewart and Fonda backed out as well. Plans for the movie were then shelved until 17 years later when it was made into a miniseries in 1989.
Lonesome Dove immediately became a huge hit and was highly acclaimed by both professional critics and television viewers. It is widely considered to be the finest miniseries of all time. Lonesome Dove also spawned four other popular miniseries (Return to Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo, Dead Man’s Walk and Comanche Moon). This series has certainly passed the test of time.