Dead Man's Walk

While the previous comments praise the actors' style and likeness in terms of their forebears (Jones and Duvall), this movie is a pleasure to watch by way of the incredible scenery and the presence of several veteran character actors like Harry Dean Stanton, Keith Carradine, and the always awesome, Edward James Olmos. Fans of "O Brother Where Art Thou" will be pleased to see Ray McKinnon and Tim Blake Nelson featured prominently. I also noticed all of the previous comments were written by Yankees, so I might point out that the landscapes are a bit flawed (albeit beautiful) in terms of Texas-New Mexico geography. I've been to all of the places described in the book... believe me, most of West Texas is flatter than they let on! The sunsets are accurate, as are the rocky buttes, but they're using the Davis Mountains of the Big Bend region as the backdrop for most of the film, and that's a bit of a stretch. If you ever want to see some of the most beautiful scenery in West Texas, visit there sometime. The real places they traveled weren't always so pretty. I found that the actors didn't seem to be struggling for food and water as much as the characters in the book. Survival (man vs. nature) is a big part of the novel, and doesn't feature too prominently here. I kept getting hungry and thirsty while reading it! McMurtry mixes in a lot of real events with the narrative. You might think this stuff is fiction... it's not! Bigfoot Wallace was a real character and was known to have done many of the things this character experiences. The real Bigfoot survived to tell the tales as a seasoned old fart. The Santa Fe expedition is real.. and what happens to them is real. The Comanches as the lords of the plains? You bet! The were the kings of the Llano Estacado for 200 years. Buffalo Hump was real Comanche chief... his real name, Hard Penis, was too much for 19th century Texans so they gave him the new moniker. The descriptions of torture? McMurtry uses real sources.. he doesn't have to make this stuff up to be shocking... it really happened! The timeline is a bit compressed for drama, but the Texans of the 1840's lived this stuff. The Black Bean drawing is also real, but it happened in Saltillo Mexico and 17 guys drew black.

For a dose of Texas History, you can't beat Dead Man's Walk. Read the book! But don't be afraid to read James Haley's "Texas: From Frontier to Spindletop". It's the real deal and includes just as much gore, drama, and adventure.

This is a great adaptation of the Larry McMurtry novel. The script follows the novel very closely, which is the number one requirement of any film adaptation of McMurtry's work. McMurtry's dialogue compels readers to fall in love with the characters, so it must be preserved. David Arquette and Jonny Lee Miller are very believable as young versions of Gus McCrae and Woodrow McCall. Arquette has even picked up some of the physical mannerisms that Robert Duvall used earlier in Lonesome Dove. Patricia Childress really captures the role of the tender-hearted young prostitute Mattie Roberts. Eric Schweig is chilling as the dangerous Comanche Chief Buffalo Hump, and the stunt work by Judson Keith Linn when doubling for Schweig is fantastic. The sequence where he rides down one of the Texas Rangers and scalps him from horseback is thrilling and terrifying. An equally terrifying nighttime sequence involves Buffalo Hump chasing down Gus on foot during a lightning storm and spearing him with his lance. The cast is full of noted character actors including Brian Dennehy, Keith Carradine, Harry Dean Stanton, F. Murray Abraham, and Edward James Olmos. Olmos is particularly effective as Mexican Army Captain Salazar. I love this mini-series, but it should not be compared to Lonesome Dove. Every adaptation of McMurtry books is different, using different casts, etc. Don't compare them, just enjoy them!

I've watched this movie about 4 times, and really enjoyed the personifications of these historic characters (albeit apocryphal).

Johnny Lee Miller and David Arquette are very convincing as Gus and Woodrow. The most memorable performance is easily that of Keith Carradine. He portrayed Bigfoot Wallace, a larger than life frontiersman, who actually outlived the firing squad at Saltillo, in a clever, poetic and humorous way. The only downer of the movie, is the same with any and all Larry McMurthy films: they're depressing as hell! Death, tragedy and sufferin'! And as with all of his films, the conquering will of the human spirit shines through. A fine example of a Western film.

Dead Man's Walk is a series based on the book of the same name by Larry McMurtry. I've read the book and found it to be OK, if a little flat. At just over 500 pages Larry doesn't get into characterization like he did in Lonesome Dove. Where we would get entire pages dedicated to back stories of characters, he merely gives us a paragraph here and there.

The series has a good cast except for one glaring short-coming; David Arquette cast as Gus McCrae. To me that would be akin to casting Chris Rock as Jules in a prequel to Pulp Fiction. The story itself is very interesting but what happens in detail is not so much. The entire first hour of the movie is almost pointless. Other than introducing the great Indian warrior's Buffalo Hump and Kicking Wolf, there really isn't anything that is that important, both in the book and in the series. McMurtry really likes killing off people in the Lonesome Dove saga doesn't he? Don't expect much in terms of emotional sine waves, it just isn't going to happen. It's a decent movie but not very memorable.

Some things are best left imagined, no?

The real reason this was made at all and secured such a broad canvas (4 hours) is that we were eager to revisit these people, Gus and Woodrow from Lonesome Dove.

The story is that they join up with a hopeless filibustering expedition to annex Santa Fe, the film mirrors the exhaustion, aimlessness, dashed dreams on no man's land. The tone is darker—there is scalping, torture, lepers. Young Gus and Woodrow are narrowly reduced to caricature, which is bound to disappoint, but they are mostly side-characters on the journey.

But Lonesome didn't just have the endless expanses of sky and prairie, the riding and shooting. Embedded in that was a richer journey of memory and dying, a whole mess of life already folded in and centered on the vision of women. What's more, it was the true article of myth, the eulogy a mid-19th century woman like Clara would seek in a Whitman poem.

Here, we just drag our feet through the desert and the women (the same women) are tacked on in the beginning and end.