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Very disappointing...

Such a frustrating disappointment

Perfect cast and a good story

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I am evidently more fortunate than most reviewers in having seen, as an adult, both versions of this excellent and delightful story. While I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of both very much, I cannot say one is "better" than the other.Of the new film, one reviewer said, "It drags," another, "Too Slow." Come on folks! You must have been raised on a steady diet of "action adventure" westerns, where men are spectacularly killing each other in every scene. Would you really prefer to believe that the helicopter chasing Tom Cruise, clinging to the top of a speeding train (Mission Impossible) explodes in a fireball rather than the crashing boredom of being cooped up in a bunkhouse with a bunch of guys who have nothing better to do than master the ability of getting on each other's last nerve? Another comment, "Too pretty." As a resident of the Eastern slope of the Southern Rocky Mountains (4,000 feet) who has traveled through Montana, it really does look that beautiful. I see mountains (which are occasionally snow-covered) in any direction from my house and if I stand on my tiptoes I can see the Rio Grande from my front porch.I watched this film twice recently over the last three weeks. Between viewings, I read The Forgotten Founders: Rethinking the History of the Old West, by Stewart L. Udall. Udall does a fine job of correcting the horse manure that dime novels, Buffalo Bill, Hollywood and television have shown as "history." Wyatt Earp shot one of the Clantons in the back in ambush. Pat Garrett shot Billy the Kid (much more fiction than fact about him) in bed. Pat (buried in the Garrett family plot a few blocks from my home) was later shot in the back of the head while urinating during a carriage ride stop. Pat was such a rotten sidewinder that when his killer claimed self defense, the jury acquitted him, with a sentiment of "Thank you for providing a needed public service!" After seeing both excellent versions of this outstanding story, I must read the book. --J. D. Schultz Sr., Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Selleck plays the symbolic last cowboy of the open range West, who resists or tries to ignore all the technological and economic changes that threaten to diminish or end his lifelong cherished working life as a wandering open range cowboy -for-hire. These factors include :cheap cattle fences, absente corporate ranches with idiotic managers, railroads, wild west shows for clueless audiences, and primitive motor buggies that can't outrun a horse on a good road, let alone navigate rough country or mud-mired roads. This last point is dramatized in the finale, when the hated horse-shy helpless-on the-range corporate range manager from the East(Slocum) is stuck in the mud in his minimal low clearance pioneer motor buggy Monte happens along on his horse and declines to pull this pathetic vehicle out, with the quote in my title. He then adds insult to injury by jumping his horse over the low buggy with occupants, then galloping off into the horizon. Prior to this scene, when the motor buggy was first encountered, in town, Monte initially refused to get his horse out of the way, just starring at it in disbelief, especially after Slocum predicted that eventually horses wouldn't be allowed on town streets.Actually, Monte had used this quote in my title previously, in a fight with the trainmen stopped at the spur at Antelope Junction. As a prank, the engineer blew his whistle as the cowboys were driving a herd of horses toward the train, causing them to scatter. The cowboys didn't think this was funny, thus all lassoed the smokestack, pulling it down, essentially grounding the train. This provoked a general brawl,, resulting in a draw. Monte then articulates his quote to the trainmen's complaint that they can't move their train without the smokestack, which they can't fix. The point was that the cowboys wanted respect for their jobs and way of life. They weren't 'Indians' that the high tech boys could push around and make fun of. There follows a classic discussion between boss Slocum and ex-cowboy Cal Brennan over who is going to pay for the damage to the train, and the strong loyalty of cowboys toward each other, despite their often short-term coworker status. However, this loyalty has its limits, as we see in Monte's response to Shorty's joining a gang of rustlers and shooting his former cowboy partner in a hold up. This was a remake for TV of the 1970 Hollywood film of the same title, based on a book by Jack Schaefer.. I haven't seen the highly praised original film, hence cannot compare them. The original was shot in dry Arizona, whereas the present film was beautifully shot in the verdant rolling country of Alberta, often with a mountain range in the near or far background. I prefer looking at the latter landscape. The scenes of several cowboys chasing and roping steers in this verdant country are particularly memorable to me. I found most all the characters well cast especially Selleck as the mule-headed last cowboy. Unlike most cowboy stars of the past, Selleck typically spends considerable time meditating and grinning, slowing down the overall action. But don't miss his bucking bronco caper in Main Street. Unfortunately, the film begins very slowly, with Monte biding his time lounging on a town porch in tiny Antelope Junction until his partners show up, and we're off chasing cows. Later, we meet Monte's intermittent immigrant lover in Isabella Rossellini, as 'countess' Martine. She doesn't come across as a believable prostitute: too cultured. We meet her several more times. At some point, Monte considers giving up cowboying to join a wild west show, to make a more proper husband for her. But, it's not to be, as he decides against this, and she dies rather soon thereafter, apparently from a combo of TB and a broken heart. Thus, this superficially not very exciting romance ends in ultimate obscurity. In Ford fashion, Monte spends considerable time meditating while setting next to her body, and later visits her grave. The film dramatizes some of the various responses of the cowboys to their much diminished opportunities for cowboying. Chet finally decides to marry and work at his wife's hardware store.'Fightin' Joe Hooker' gallops his horse off a high cliff to his death. Shorty gets into rustling and store robbing. Historically, this was not an unusual response during hard times, when many cattle died from weather extremes or prices plummeted. Monte somehow manages to find enough work cowboying to get by. Like Carleton Heston's Will Penny, he doesn't think he could psychologically adapt to any other way of life. Penny's problem is he's getting old rather than the free ranging cowboy is becoming obsoleteThe current DVD, part of a small set of Selleck's westerns is of excellent quality. I rate this film in the middle of the 3 films included, with "Last Stand at Saber River" my favorite, this film only slightly behind it, and "Crossfire Trail" clearly the least. Yes, I consider it a classic, as many others do. Too slow paced for many, I realize.

Monte Walsh is a great western film...The acting is excellent,the location stunning and the direction handled expertly..In short i loved this movie... It is clearly as labour of love for all those involved making the film..The tale of the old cowboy refusing to change as the old west dies out has been told before but not with as much pride & passion as this effort has...Tom Selleck has at last found a genre that shakes off his Magnum Pi days with success...The last two previous TNT westerns(Saber River & Crossfire Trail) were good but this really stands out above the two.I won't go into plot detail as those who haven't watched the film yet i'll leave that for you to discover for yourself but i will say that this is one of my favourite westerns ever made & i for one can't wait for Selleck to saddle up once again........

Extremely accurate historically, this western chronicles the clash of the cowboy culture with 20th century progress - a popular theme in U. S. history. Selleck is excellent as Monte (as he is in most roles!) The production is very accurate, amazingly so for a T V western; "...Dove" was the archetypal western but this comes very close. The bucking bronco in the store typifies, as few other scenes ever have, the battle between the Old West and modern America. The only weak aspect of the story is Shorty's sudden descent from decent cowboy to killer. There's no real justification for this, but it's perhaps meant to further illustrate the death throes of the cowboy profession. Great movie - I recommend it highly.