Some things are best left imagined, no?The real reason this was made at all and secured such a broad canvas (4 hours) is that we were eager to revisit these people, Gus and Woodrow from Lonesome Dove.The story is that they join up with a hopeless filibustering expedition to annex Santa Fe, the film mirrors the exhaustion, aimlessness, dashed dreams on no man's land. The tone is darker—there is scalping, torture, lepers. Young Gus and Woodrow are narrowly reduced to caricature, which is bound to disappoint, but they are mostly side-characters on the journey.But Lonesome didn't just have the endless expanses of sky and prairie, the riding and shooting. Embedded in that was a richer journey of memory and dying, a whole mess of life already folded in and centered on the vision of women. What's more, it was the true article of myth, the eulogy a mid-19th century woman like Clara would seek in a Whitman poem.Here, we just drag our feet through the desert and the women (the same women) are tacked on in the beginning and end.

Larry McMurtry always takes some liberties with history; however, he went off the reservation when dealing with Dead Man's walk. He portrayed the Mier Expedition as a "small undertaking" including having Big Foot Wallace and 3 others executed during the black bean selection. This whole section of the story was full of inaccuracies. There were 17 men executed --- and Big Foot Wallace wasn't one of them --- he lived to a ripe old age. Its a good story, however the cast was somewhat lackluster. I've read all of the McMurtry books and can see the characters come to life as in Lonesome Dove. I couldn't say the same for this adaption.

I have not read the book, so I can't compare it. But, I hope that the book is not as slow as this movie. Some of the acting is very good, and so is some scenes, but I get the feeling that nothing really happens. It's just a long travel... I am sure that many of the scenes could have been done more exciting, and with more "feeling". Also, I don't get to know any of the crew, so when something happens with them, I don't have any special feeling for them. I actually didn't feel that this movie was that much about Woodrow Call and Augustus Macrae.For me, the material could have been cut down to about two hours without loosing the story.

This is a great adaptation of the Larry McMurtry novel. The script follows the novel very closely, which is the number one requirement of any film adaptation of McMurtry's work. McMurtry's dialogue compels readers to fall in love with the characters, so it must be preserved. David Arquette and Jonny Lee Miller are very believable as young versions of Gus McCrae and Woodrow McCall. Arquette has even picked up some of the physical mannerisms that Robert Duvall used earlier in Lonesome Dove. Patricia Childress really captures the role of the tender-hearted young prostitute Mattie Roberts. Eric Schweig is chilling as the dangerous Comanche Chief Buffalo Hump, and the stunt work by Judson Keith Linn when doubling for Schweig is fantastic. The sequence where he rides down one of the Texas Rangers and scalps him from horseback is thrilling and terrifying. An equally terrifying nighttime sequence involves Buffalo Hump chasing down Gus on foot during a lightning storm and spearing him with his lance. The cast is full of noted character actors including Brian Dennehy, Keith Carradine, Harry Dean Stanton, F. Murray Abraham, and Edward James Olmos. Olmos is particularly effective as Mexican Army Captain Salazar. I love this mini-series, but it should not be compared to Lonesome Dove. Every adaptation of McMurtry books is different, using different casts, etc. Don't compare them, just enjoy them!