Larry Mcmurtry's Streets of Laredo [DVD] [1995] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

James Garner takes over the role of the stoic-hardbitten old Texas Ranger, Capt. Woodrow Call (played by Tommy Lee Jones in Lonesome Dove).

Capt. Call turns bounty hunter on behalf of a railroad company to track down 17 year old psychopathic killer Joey Garza (played ruthlesslly by Alexis Cruz). The supporting cast that includes, Sonia Braga, Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard , Randy Quaid...etc., are all in top form in their character roles.

Great Story, well told and directed.

DVD Picture and Sound are excellent, picture format 4:3, extras included on this 2 disc set are text interviews with Garner and Spacek. Running Time: 4 hours,12 minutes approx.

A worthwhile purchase for the Western fan.

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.

Following on from the epic Lonesome Dove and the lesser Return to Lonesome Dove tv veteran Joseph Sargent has fashioned a superior tale to surpass even the original.

Captain Woodrow Call (this time played by James Garner)is employed by the Texas Railroad company to hunt down trainrobber and psychopathic killer Joey Garza with the aid of a company penpusher and a greenhorn deputy sheriff. His regular partner P Y(Sam Shepard)cries off the manhunt citing family obligations but guilt takes hold of him and he sets off in pursuit of the captain helped by indian tracker Famous Shoes(played in Chief Dan George style by Wes Studi) which in turn encourages his headstrong wife Lorena(Sissy Spacek)to pack their children off to family and head off after him.

Sentimental in places and bearing a coincidence or two too many,this is still riveting television.Revisionist in it's brutality(echoing Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven) the west was truly wild.A stellar cast all get powerful moments with Sonia Braga as the killer's mother being particularly fine as well as Randy Quaid's chilling turn as famed killer John Wesley Hardin who perversely provides most of the little humour that there is on offer.His killing of a disgruntled blacksmith is however a brutal scene amongst many others that litter this fine drama.

Veteran Sargent directs the whole thing with economy and no small matter of imagination with startling angles and stunning vistas,McMurtry adapted his own book with even the smallest characters being imbued with a prescence that always serves the narrative and the cast are uniformly excellent.

A Triumph for all concerned