Larry McMurtry's Streets of Laredo (1995)

The critical and popular success of the Lonesome Dove miniseries just about ensured a sequel or three. The first spinoff, Return to Lonesome Dove, was rushed out without author Larry McMurtry's input, but Streets of Laredo, which McMurtry scripted from his own novel, returns us firmly to his brutal West. Legendary Texas Ranger Captain Woodrow Call (James Garner, who steps into the boots left by Tommy Lee Jones with comfortable assurance and understated courage) has turned bounty hunter, and he heads off on the bloody trail of vicious Mexican gunman Joey Garza (Alexis Cruz), a sadistic, angry south-of-the-border rebel without a cause. Lonesome Dove echoes through the story: Call's former trail hand Pea Eye Parker (Sam Shepard) is enlisted in his posse and Parker's wife, Lorena (Sissy Spacek in the role Diane Lane created in the original and the desert-worn soul of this story), follows in their wake with news that the psychopathic renegade Mox Mox (Kevin Conway), who once held her captive, is alive and back on the warpath.

McMurtry's Old West is not a pleasant place, and Streets of Laredo is not for the faint of heart. It's a lawless, racist, brutal world where might may not make right, but it certainly holds sway in isolated desert towns and lonely trails. Yet for all the tragedy and violence, McMurtry finds hope in the love and respect that breaks down racial barriers, holds families together, and creates new ones. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

Bleak but brilliant revisionist Western

A long way from the Hollywoodised version of a Lonesome Dove sequel seen in `Return from Lonesome Dove', this is Larry McMurty's riposte to the way the Studio handled that sequel. Where `Return..' dealt with the cattle barons and themes of redemption and wholesome endings, this is a stark and realistic portrayal of the West. Here, the violent men of the burgeoning West are a dying breed (no pun intended) and that sense of a time in history passing is present throughout the whole movie.
Captain Call is now a bounty hunter - past his best, failing eyesight and getting old, but still with his own inherent sense of what's right intact. The movie is a manhunt, for a young Mexican killer - a boy from a good family who was captured by the Apache and was bad ever since. For the trip, Call seeks the help of his one time corporal, Pea Eye, and is joined by a city man who represents the railroad that hires him. The action scenes are short, and for the most part unexpected in both their appearance and their results. The beauty of McMurty's writing is that the whole thing never once fits any of the Western clichés, and convinces throughout with its ring of truth. And yet every character however small is drawn as if from life, with details, flaws and occasional moments of glory making sense.
What is truly remarkable is that the heart of the movie lies with the women. They are presented as the real heroes of the West - they suffered, they kept to what is right, and they made a life for themselves and their families no matter what life they had come from. Sissy Spacek playing Lorena, personifies this as the ex-whore who protects her family and loves her husband with intensity and conviction of one who believes that life can and will be better. It's her best performance in years.
Apart from Spacek, good performances abound, from Sam Shephards understated Pea Eye, to James Garner's nuanced Captain Call. It's one of Masterclass performances where by never letting us catch him acting, we feel like we know him as the character - and when his face shows near nothing, we are convinced we know what he's thinking.
It's a sad fact that as a TV movie this tends to fall into the sideline of history, but this is a solid piece of intelligently put together film-making which deserves your attention.
Extras are light - a text only interview with Garner and Spacek, and text only McMurty bio and bibliography. What a shame that no-one thought to talk to anyone about how this fascinating series came to be.
June 14, 2008

Can I give it a NEGATIVE rating?

When I watched Lonesome Dove originally, I literally fell in love with this movie. I don't remember when it ever on television but I guess that it was at one time. Eventually I watched the rest of the movies - and of all the movies made from the Lonesome Dove stories, I have to say that the last one - the "Streets of Laredo" was the worst of any of them - a disaster from the very start. After seeing the original LD, I watched Dead Man's Walk - I was amazed at how well these actors - the two that played Gus and Woodrow - recreated their characters' personalities - exactly the same as they were portrayed by Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones. You'd almost be able to swear up and down that these actually were the same two main characters when they actually were younger - Honestly, they couldn't have done a better job if they'd wanted. It seems like to me that this series could have ended a million different ways but the way they ended it was definitely the wrong way. It goes completely against the story set up in the 3 proceeding chapters and other than the fact that Call lost his leg just like Gus had in the original movie (isn't that just a little too ironic?), it didn't look like a sequal to any of the previous movies, that is besides the names of the characters. I read the book "Comanche Moon" in 1997 or 1998 and realized after I'd finished reading it, realized that THIS is the book that they should make the next movie out of. It should have been the second movie made - I know it hadn't probably been written yet - but it is set in the natural chronological order of events between the time of Dead Man's Walk and the Original LD. I'll bet that it would be better than all the others before it, put together (and now I know that I was right). Originally, I purchased the entire set of movies on VHS but when eventually I purchased the DVDs, I bought all of the movies in the series EXCEPT SL. I've never liked the movie and will never again waste my time or my money with that movie ever again. I'm just sorry that I wasted my time watching it in the first place. I expected it to be as good as the rest of the previous movies. I just wish it had ended differently - It was definitely a HUGE disappointment. June 9, 2008

Old Captain Call follows Gus's Leg Demise

This is a pretty good video. It is all part of the great Lonesome Dove series. Kind of sad, but at least he lives on, unlike Gus did. March 31, 2008

Review of Streets of Laredo

Excellent film! The story is great! Typical Amazon shipping - fast and well wraped. February 21, 2008

Not a great sequal to Lonesome Dove

Very disappointing. Lonesome Dove is one of the greatest movies of all times. I had hopes the follow up would be close to the same but it lacked in every way. The cast is not nearly as good and the movie is just tiring all the way through. It drags and does not live up to Lonesome Dove. February 18, 2008

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