Johnson County War (2002)

In the tradition of Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo, this three-hour Hallmark miniseries ranks among the finest TV Westerns ever produced. With a deft balance of rugged action and richly drawn characters, Johnson County War captures the essence--if not the precise historical details--of the range wars that raged between Wyoming homesteaders and cattle barons in the early 1890s. Fighting for the legal settlers are the Hammett brothers Cain, Harry, and Dale (Tom Berenger, Luke Perry, Adam Storke), along with Dale's tough-as-leather wife (Michelle Forbes) and an ill-fated whore (Rachel Ward) who stands proudly against the hired gun (Burt Reynolds) who terrorizes the region for his cowardly British employers. Reynolds is too contemporary for his role, but he's a dapper villain surrounded by stooges you'll truly love to hate, and Berenger leads the excellent cast with an outstanding, lived-in performance. An actor and veteran stuntman, director David S. Cass Sr. capably serves the original script by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, bringing workmanlike intensity to several exciting chases and showdowns, all beautifully filmed by ace cinematographer Doug Milsome. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

a fizzle

As soon as you see the name Larry McMurty, you know it's going to be a very, very long movie in which very, very little happens. McMurty seems to specialize in taking short stories and padding them into three-volume novels. This movie, of which he only wrote the screenplay, is no exception. The scenery and music keep it from being a total waste and the gritty, dirty sets.

Western fans may be annoyed by a couple of places where credibility is strained in how the character handles a dangerous situation. Also, the big, big buildup to a climactic scene leads to a fizzle ending. The characters are not, in fact, well developed but are stereotypes. The British lord and his man-servant are comic book material, not only stereotypes but highly prejudiced stereotypes.

There are many better movies out there. See this only if you're a fan of one of the players. And by the bye, even though Rachel Ward gets top billing on the cover, she has a very small part and is quickly dead, a pity since she was at least a colorful character. December 9, 2006

Johnsson County War

This film is superb! I have always been a fan of Tom Berenger and this film is certainly one of the best. Great story and beautiful scenery. Glad I bought it. November 10, 2006

The REEL story hasn't been filmed yet

I am a resident of Buffalo, Johnson County, Wyoming. I've seen this movie as well as "Heaven's Gate" and "In Old Cheyenne" all of which supposedly dealt with the "Johnson County War" of 1892. This version is a well-acted western and enjoyable entertainment but I must plead with the reader to not believe this movie has anything to do the titled incident. It's worth getting to add to your "westerns" collection or if you're a fan of Burt Reynolds or Tom Berenger. But Don't get it if you want to learn about the real Johnson County War...that version hasn't been filmed yet. March 2, 2006

Overlong, muddled... but good to look at

Large, sprawling, and picture-postcard pretty, JOHNSON COUNTY WAR is a three-hour mini-series that originally ran on the Hallmark Channel in 2002. It's based on a real event, a range war that pitted large ranchers against small ranchers in Wyoming in 1892. Infamously it's the real life event that inspired Michael Cimino's mega-disaster `Heaven's Gate.'

`Based on' doesn't mean `faithful to,' and a cursory internet search of `Johnson County War' reveals a muddled, hero-less big rancher versus small rancher conflict that pitted cattle rustlers against the unscrupulous wealthy. Here, though, the moral right and wrong is more strongly etched. Tom Berenger plays Cain Hammett, the eldest of three brothers (why are there always three brothers in these western mini-series?) Cain is a good guy, a small ranch bachelor who has a healthy and upright respect for younger brother Dale's (Adam Storke) wife Rory (Michelle Forbes.) Dale is a sheep rancher, a bit lower in the pecking order as such things were reckoned back then. Unfortunately, we're introduced to Dale soon after we meet Rory, who's nursing a nasty looking, husband-inflicted black eye. The penalty, the movie explains away, for calling your husband a coward because he won't shoot to kill mercenary Marshall Hunt Lawton (Burt Reynolds.) Little brother Harry (Luke Perry), meanwhile, is out branding strays and squiring a passel of young widows. The widows were made by Lawton, who along with other hired thugs pin messages (`Beware Cattle Rustlers,' and the like) on their victims' corpses. The wealthy ranchers' Cheyenne Club hired Lawton to intimidate the small ranchers into leaving.

JOHNSON COUNTY WAR is a good enough movie, but it has some problems. For one, it lasts at least an hour longer than it needs to. Rachel Ward plays a hard-boiled prostitute who, while entertaining enough, doesn't add a lot to the story while chewing up an inordinate amount of screen time. Reynolds, in a role Robert Ryan spent the last couple of decades of his career playing to perfection, doesn't have the grit to carry it off convincingly. The issues aren't very sharply drawn, either. I don't mind when a movie plays with the facts, but JOHNSON COUNTY WAR doesn't make the core issues, especially what's happening with the small ranchers, clear enough to follow. An alright modern western, but that's about it.
November 5, 2005

Authentic and Timely

This film far exceeds the quality of the one made in the 1970s (starring Christopher Walken) about the same historical events and the murder of (real name) Nate Champion in the Johnson County, Wyoming, cattle wars of 1892.

The spirit of the film stays with the spirit of the novel on which it's based, "Riders of Judgment," by Frederick Manfred. Manfred was a tireless, detailed researcher, and he portrayed the historical facts with incredible skill, as did the makers of this film.

This is not just a cowboy movie. It's a story that warns us of the corruption and power-mongering that characterizes our times. October 16, 2005

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