Johnson County War

I enjoyed the movie for its entertainment value. But a movie titled The Johnson County War should endeavor to tell the story of its namesake. Especially since it is not a well known event and viewers are likely to accept the movie as historically accurate.

The basics are intact. The cattle barons declared war on the small ranchers over the issue of open range. The small ranchers were liberally declared rustlers in order to justify prosecuting them with extreme prejudice. A small army of mercenaries was hired to do the dirty work. Those familiar with the history of the Johnson County War know that a rancher named Nate Champion stood off the mercenary army in his cabin for a considerable length of time.

The movie takes that event and fictionalizes it with Tom Berenger's Cain Hammett making that stand instead of Nate Champion. The details of that fight are fairly accurate. But Berenger's character is fictitious, with subplots about brothers and spouses. It is not Nate Champion by another name. So it makes little sense to me to make a movie about a historical event and pretend that it happened to someone different. Kind of like Custer's Last Stand with some fictitious guy named Clyde Smith as the leader of the Cavalry instead of Custer.

The movie makes for a good western. But Nate Champion's story is entertaining in itself. Christopher Walken portrayed him in Heaven's Gate, which is also about the Johnson County War. But in that movie, director Michael Cimino took the names of Jim Averill and Ella Watson, two small ranchers hanged early in the dispute, and assigned them to the Marshall portrayed by Kris Kristofferson and the prostitute portrayed by Isabelle Huppert.

The Johnson County War is a little known and interesting part of American history. Too bad that movie makers play so fast and loose with the facts.

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.

This is an expertly made TV western with a top notch cast.

A grandiose kind of story involving cattle ranchers and their feuds with cattle barons gets a first rate production and presentation from Hallmark. The cast is great, Tom Berenger terrific as always, Luke Perry surprisingly tolerable and a very feisty and evil Burt Reynolds looks smashing.

One of the better recent westerns to have come out in long while. Beats out most of these big budget Hollywood releases by a long shot. Highly recommended.

8 out of 10.

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.

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.