“See now, that’s the difference between you and me, Woodrow. I mostly think about love, and you mostly think about war.” – Steve Zahn as Gus McCrae
Comanche Moon DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
It may be hard to believe, but the miniseries Lonesome Dove, based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Larry McMurtry, premiered on CBS almost twenty years ago. Over the next seven years, two of McMurtry’s other Lonesome Dove books were filmed for television: the sequel Streets of Laredo and the prequel Dead Man’s Walk. Also filmed was Return to Lonesome Dove, a sequel to the original miniseries that is somewhat of an odd man out since it isn’t based on a McMurtry book and thus skews the timeline of the Lonesome Dove world. (When Dove became a ratings smash, its producers decided that they couldn’t wait for McMurtry to finish a new book before starting a sequel, so they commissioned Return from another writer. McMurtry had his revenge—he killed off several characters, rendering Return irrelevant.)
For some reason, McMurtry’s fourth book in the Dove series didn’t make the leap to the small screen after its 1997 publication...until now. Comanche Moon, which is given the tagline “The Second Chapter in the Lonesome Dove Saga,” covers the time between Dead Man’s Walk and Lonesome Dove.
The miniseries begins in 1858. Boisterous Gus McCrae (Steve Zahn, Joy Ride) and his taciturn friend Woodrow F. Call (Karl Urban, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) are Texas Rangers based in Austin, Texas. The Rangers are a volunteer troop formed to help fight off the Comanche, with whom the whites have been at war since the early 1800s. On this day, however, Gus and Call are with eccentric Captain Inish Scull (Val Kilmer, The Doors) on the trail of Kicking Wolf (Jonathan Joss), who stole a herd of horses from the Rangers. When Kicking Wolf manages to sneak into the Rangers’ camp at night and steal Scull’s favorite steed, Hector (known as Buffalo Horse to the Indians), Scull decides to relieve his life of boredom by tracking down the horse by himself. On foot. Never mind that the horse is being taken to the camp of murderous slave trader Ahumando (Sal Lopez) in the Yellow Cliffs of Northern Mexico. Scull thinks it will be a delightful learning experience. Before he departs, he promotes both Call and Gus to Captain, charging them with leading their fellow Rangers back to Austin.
Austin is almost as wild as Comanche country, especially with Scull’s wife, Inez (Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters) around. A slave-beating Southern hussy, she enjoys rather athletic sex with any man who happens to walk within five feet of her. Still, she insists to the governor that the Rangers find her husband.
Both Gus and Call have reasons for wanting to quit the Rangers. Gus is head over heels in love with Clara Forsythe (Linda Cardellini, Freaks and Geeks), the daughter of Austin’s general store owner. He also knows that he has competition—horse wrangler Bob Allen (Josh Berry)—who is much more dependable than Gus could ever be. Call has gotten the sweet-hearted town hooker, Maggie (Elizabeth Banks, The 40 Year Old Virgin), pregnant. There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that the baby is Call’s...except for Call. He relates better to horses than to people, much less a pregnant woman. Each talks of settling down, but both men have wanderlust in their souls and willingly accept the governor’s orders to find Inish Scull.
There is more to the story than that, of course—Comanche raids on Austin, suicides, disputes among tribe members, the clash between the North and the South, the anatomy of fleas—but to give away more would spoil the fun.
By now, these characters have been played by so many people that it is hard to keep track. Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones originated the roles of Gus and Call, setting the standards high. In subsequent miniseries, Call has been assayed by John Voight, James Garner (The Rockford Files), and Jonny Lee Miller (Eli Stone), and David Arquette took on the role of Gus in Dead Man’s Walk.
How do the newcomers stack up? Zahn is terrific as Gus. He seems to have studied Duvall’s performance, yet his Gus never comes across as an impersonation. Instead, he inhabits the character. Urban gets Call’s overall tone, but doesn’t provide much nuance. Kilmer’s performance borders on hammy and overblown...until you realize that this is who the character is—grating, grand, and slightly crazy.
Comanche Moon lacks the literal drive that keeps Lonesome Dove moving, and, as a prequel, it most functions as a fill-in-the-blanks exercise since we already know how everything will turn out. Still, it is beautifully shot, well acted, and often feels as if we’re welcoming back an old friend. Overall, this is a worthy addition to the Lonesome Dove canon.
