Les derniers pionniers

I didn't even realize until after we had watched it (I guess I had somehow missed it in the beginning credits?) and came online here to review it that this TV movie was actually directed by Tommy Lee Jones, who is also the main lead in this. He did a very good job as an actor and a director both for this film, especially considering he had to do both at once.

It is a western drama about a cowboy who is rugged and wants to be free but also has the pull of "civilization" and family, who are making him more domesticated.

It's a good if predictable story and the acting make it definitely worth seeing, with a fantastic cast all around. Sam Shepard is great, as is Jones.

Tommy Lee Jones directs himself and a sensational cast in this western. I couldn't believe how wonderful it was, and went to imdb to see who directed it. The look and feel of this movie are perfect, and every moment rings true. It also looks great. Jones' eye is superb, and the shots are brilliant without calling attention to themselves. Terrific.

Perhaps I liked this movie because it reminded me very much of my father and mother. My father was an itinerent cowboy and a championship rodeo rider in the early part of the 20th Century just like the role Tommy Lee Jones played as Hewey Callaway. And he had a side kick much like Sam Shepard's character Tarnell. My father met a lady like Sissy Spacek when he was 31 and married her. Tarnell also got married but he was killed in a rodeo two years later and my father gave up rodeo riding.

Life was very much like in the movie in those days. You found people that would go out of their way to help others and the bankers in the movie were typical of bankers in those days, mean as hell.

The acting in the movie was excellent. Everyone in the movie played roles that were very typical in those days and they did a good job of it. The only gripe I have with the movie is that the ending was unreal. I won't give it away but I have known many cowboys but I never knew one that didn't want to settle down.

One of the funniest scenes in the movie was when the outhouse was knocked down with the grandmother in it. That was a common prank in those days, to knock over an outhouse. The grandmother was a pistol. I knew old women just like her.

The author either had some experience or he really did a great job of research because the story (except for the ending) accurately depicted conditions in those days.

I just wanted mainly to comment on another reviewer's review, in which he thought the ending was unrealistic. It just happens that the author, Elmer Kelton, grew up on West Texas ranches and probably knows at least as many cowboys as that reviewer and is a well respected Western author. I would like to see more of his books made into movies. I was working in the Ft. Davis area during the summer the movie was being made there. Tommy Lee Jones is also a West Texan and seems to know how to portray them well on screen. My favorite scene is when Hewey Callaway and his friend rope the old car at the rodeo in San Angelo. Also a very funny one is the one where Hewey shakes the dog urine off a weed onto the pants leg of the Fat banker, resulting in the dog urinating on his leg.

Tommy Lee Jones was perfect as a slow moving, slow talking cowboy who comes out of the hills after a 2 year stay. He goes to see his brother and his family finding them in financial trouble. He lends his hand in helping out the troubled family, and falls in love with a local lady. Well done film about a man who finds it impossible to change his roving ways. 4 stars.