Monte Walsh

Starring:Tom Selleck, Isabella Rossellini, Keith Carradine, George Eads, Robert Carradine, Barry Corbin, James Gammon, Rex Linn, John Michael Higgins, William Sanderson, Wallace Shawn, Marshall R. Teague, Rick Ravanello, Joanna Miles, Lori Hallier, Matt Cooke, Ken Pogue, Zack Ward, William Devane, Shane Pollitt
Director: Simon Wincer
Studio: Turner Home Ent
Product Type: DVD

Description

Times change, Monte Walsh doesn't. For him, being a cowboy isn't a job, it's a life. And that's something the fenced-in, corporate-bean-counting ways of the onrushing 20th century must never alter. Tom Selleck plays Monte, struggling to continue the life he knows while seeing the new era nudge the cowboy way toward history's dustbin. Lonesome Dove Emmy winner Simon Wincer directs this Western featuring a superb supporting cast and based on a novel by the author of Shane.

Amazon.com

Tom Selleck is at his iconic best in this made-for-cable remake of Monte Walsh, a poignant Western about the passing of an American age and the people attached to it. Selleck plays the title character, a career cowboy whose rhythms are aligned with the seasons and the annual herding of cattle from Wyoming to Texas. Faithful to his ways, loyal to his best friend (Keith Carradine), and satisfied with his part-time romance with an ailing, aging saloon girl (Isabella Rosselini), Walsh is happy until his 1890s world rapidly unravels. Eastern corporations are buying up land and shutting down ranches; trains are shuttling livestock faster than an army of cowhands. Walsh can't accommodate the future, and those closest to him are moving on. Director Simon Wincer (Lonesome Dove) masterfully balances the epic and elegaic, Selleck is perfect as a fading footnote to history, and Monte Walsh becomes a universal tale of loss and integrity. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

Moving tribute to the real cowboys........2007-02-25

This is not a shoot-em-up Western. If that is what you are after, stop reading right here. What this is, is a real heartfelt tribute to the cowboy. The genuine article cowboy. In particular, it charts a group of cowboys through the decline of the golden age of the cowboy, near the end of the 19th Century. Almost the whole of the first half of the movie, there is no plot to speak of, just character exposition building up the picture of the life and character that these men had. Nothing is rushed, and yet it is never dull, thanks to an intelligent script. There are humorous moments and great lines, but plenty of pathos and melancholy too, as the characters all deal with the end of an era in their own ways. We see the cowboy-turned-outlaw, the cowboy-turned-storekeeper, the cowboy-turned-floor sweeper... but most of all we see the cowboy turned into legend. As the plot kicks in, there is nothing contrived about it, but it all feeds into the central idea of examining what men do when their purpose is taken away from them.
The movie benefits from some great performances from some classic character actors such as William Devane and Barry Corbin, as well as a brilliant star turn from Tom Selleck who has never been better. It also benefits from the stunning scenery - ironically not in Wyoming as the movie suggests, but shot in Canada. The sweeping vistas, free of any trace of civilization, set against a backdrop of the Rockies, are stunning and superbly photographed.
What pulls this above it's TV-movie-of-the-week origins is the sincerity poured into it by all concerned, and not least by the prolific director Simon Wincer (Lonesome Dove, Quigley Down Under... and Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles! ) and executive producer Tom Selleck. This fills the movie with those little, almost subliminal moments which make it feel real.
The result is no classic big screen film, but a perfectly judged and understated homage to a bygone era. It leaves us with the notion, that though the golden age is over, there will always be real cowboys.

Can't be a cowboy forever.......2007-01-10

In this classic style western, the main character is faced with a changing world that seems to be intruding on the life he has chosen to live. Despite the innevitable - that he will one day succumb to progress - the story follows him on through life but never seems to resolve the assertion by another character that you cannot be a cowboy forever. It seemed to be just a pleasent story of one who fights progress but never resolves an answer for himself. Still, the scenery is beautiful and Mr. Selleck does a fine job as the quintessential cowboy as usual.

Know how Monte Felt.......2006-12-18

As another man said, the plot has been explained by others pretty thoroughly, and as I went through these reviews a gentleman from Nevada put a different spin on his particular review; as a third generation cowboy he used this film to teach a city boy why he his the way he his. I didn't do that. Well, sorta.
I am a fourth generation rancher and cowhunter in Florida (used to be a top five beeve cattle state) and will be the last. Not because I lack children, but rather because in less than two decades my county has turned form ranchland to suburbs and native Crackers and cowhunters such as myself have become a small and declining minority in our own land. I have become Monte Walsh, as has just about everyone I grew up with.

I caught this film on TNT and actually welled up a little. When it came out I snatched it up and took it down to the local drinking hole on "John Wayne Night" (we watch a Western and toast the Duke) and convinced the bartender to put it on. She's a sucker for Selleck. I had also invited a batch of my Snowbird (PC for Yankees) pals to sit in. When the movie was over the place was real quiet, then a old timer stood up and said "A toast to all us fence riders!" It was a dang good toast. It was kinda quiet for the rest of the night, but everyone congratulated the choice; it summed us all up. We may be dying out, a bit bitter about it, but by God we'll go out with dignity. As for my Northern pal's reactions, well as the Nevadan's boss said: "Now I get it."

Selleck's third TNT Western is a poignant goodbye to the cowboy way of life.......2006-11-04

This 2003 remake of "Monte Walsh" was Tom Selleck's third (but hopefully not last) Western for TNT, and it is probably the most stirring film tribute to the end of the Old West and the cowboy way of life. This is saying quite a bit as some fine Westerns like "The Wild Bunch", "The Shootist", and (even more recently) "Open Range" as well as other movies have dealt with the changes resulting from progress as the U.S. was about to enter the twentieth century.

Other reviewers have covered the plot line in great detail already, so I won't retread that ground. Suffice it to say that, while Selleck's Monte Walsh is the hero of the picture, he is portrayed with character flaws intact as well. Montelius Walsh loves three things in life: horses, women, and drinking (and the order of these things changes at different times in his life). He is stubborn, afraid to commit to Martine (his favorite prostitute whom he does seem to love), and refuses to change. He is also hard-working and loyal to his friends, especially his best buddy Chet (played by Keith Carradine), and these qualities are what make his character heroic and the storyline affecting.

I'm convinced that if Selleck had starred primarily in Westerns throughout his film career, then his movie success would have dwarfed his "Magnum P.I." role. The TNT Westerns, along with his three previous Westerns dating back to 1979's "The Sacketts", establish him as a premier cowboy actor. "Monte Walsh" is the finest of those efforts to date, and it is to be hoped that Selleck will 'saddle up' again soon; perhaps he'll even reunite with Sam Elliott with whom he starred in his first two made-for-TV Westerns and who has also made some first-rate Westerns for TNT.

Watch this one. It's an elegiac tribute to the passing of the Old West and the American cowboy. May both continue to live on in films!

End of an era.......2006-08-11

Somewhat sad as the lead characters have a difficult time giving up their lives as cowboys on the open range.

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