Johnson County War

Nice to pass the time with this version of the Johnson County Wars in Wyoming, one of the major cattle wars of the 19th Century. Most of the acting is pretty good. Burt Reynolds is a bit over the top. Looks like the cast had fun dressing up. Pretty scenery. The UK ranching baron is a bit too prissy. So it was a Wyoming story shot in Canada, and yet another cowboy movie in which someone sang "The Cowboy's Lament," a song first published in 1910. The Johnson County War ran from 1889 to 1893.

I found this western drama to be very watchable. It tells the tale of small ranchers (brothers Tom Berenger, Adam Storke and Luke Perry). These three brothers are trying to protect their property from the rich and powerful ranchers who wish to drive them away, through devious and murderous means.

The entire cast is very good -- Adam Storke is (in my opinion) under-appreciated, and he is very likeable in this movie as middle brother Dale. Luke Perry does an admirable job as younger brother Harry. Tom Berenger is excellent, (as he always is) playing eldest brother Cain. Also in the cast are Rachel Ward as a tough but likeable prostitute, and Burt Reynolds as an evil hired gun.

Beautiful scenery, an excellent musical score, good writing and a top-notch cast make this a worthwhile movie to see.

I really wanted to like this film, with it's strong cast, and a script co-written by Larry McMurtry, tackling the fascinating true story of the Johnson County War, where big ranchers and upstart smaller farmers engaged in one of the old west's most infamous range wars. There has been numerous film versions of this range war, "Heaven's Gate" being the most notable, but none have been great adaptation of the story. This film version boasts a strong cast that includes Tom Berenger, Burt Reynolds, Rachel Ward, and Michelle Forbes (there's also Luke Perry), but I was mostly excited by the involvement of Pulitzer Prize winning author Larry McMurtry, who has previously written his own romanticized adaptations of other old west figures Billy the Kid, Calamity Jane, and Wild Bill Hicock. I was hoping this TV movie was going to have McMurtry's same melancholy romanticized vision of the old west, but it sadly did not live up to his best adaptations (i.e. "Lonesome Dove" or even "Buffalo Girls"). The true story of the Johnson County War is not as clear cut as most films versions make it out to be. Usually the big ranchers are portrayed as the black hat villains trying to chase out the smaller rangers and farmers, playing into a familiar class warfare story of the powerful picking on the "little guy." The truth of the situation was that the these little guys were actually stealing a significant amount of cattle from these larger rangers. In real life, both sides had legitimate grievances with the other and both sides had their own villains, which would have been an interesting story to tell, but this film does not tackle that. It instead follows the standard class warfare story, which if done well could have been an entertaining old west tale, but it ends up feeling like a pretty standard Ted Turner made-for-cable western. Douglas Milsome, who's worked with the likes of Stanley Kubrick and Michael Mann (and also the horror movie version of Rumpelstiltskin), provides the film with some striking photography, but overall I found myself disappointed with what ends up being a routine oater.

This movie inspired me to do further research. There really was a Johnson County war in Wyoming. A number of events in the film, which I thought had to be fiction because they were so unbelievable, actually did happen although the names of the characters had been changed. The range wars of the West were extremely vicious.

Tom Berenger does a very good job and is very much the hero. The rest of the cast are also very good, particularly Michelle Forbes, Luke Perry, and Christopher Cazenove. Frankly, the scenery steals the picture. The mountains and the surrounding forests and streams are incredible and beautifully shot by the cinematographer.

I thought that this TV miniseries was really great. It starts out a little slow, but it makes perfect sense as the plot advances further. The characters were developed and likely, and some repulsive (in a good way). The acting was highly professional, and i think the casting for the film was right on the mark. Tom Berenger did a spectacular acting job with the lead character of Cain Hammett. Luke Perry, Burt Reynolds and Jack Conley also acted quite admirably.

I especially enjoyed the last hour of the movie. It was highly action packed as much as any pure action movie would be. I was very tense just watching it all, i was cheering when the bad guys got gunned down in the epic end battle...which is unusual for me to do so. This was a major gun battle!

If you like Westerns made right, then you'll love Johnson County War.