Return to Lonesome Dove (1993)

Having fulfilled his promise to a dying friend, Capt. Woodrow F. Call (Jon Voight) decides a man should leave more behind than a grave marker by a stream in Lonesome Dove, Texas.

So he spots a mustang herd and dreams of creating a great horse ranch in Montana, partly by breeding those mustangs with some of the fine stock on Clara Allen’s ranch in Ogallala, Nebraska.

Then he recruits another former Texas Ranger (William Peterson as Capt. Gideon Walker) and an old friend (Louis Gossett Jr. as Isaac Pickett) to round up the mustangs and drive them to Montana.

While they’re making that journey, he figures to meet up with his range boss (Ricky Shroder as Newt Dodds) at Clara’s ranch to haggle over breeding stock.

Newt never makes it. Fellow cowboy Jasper Flint convinces him to make an ill-advised detour through Miles City to enjoy one wild night on the town.

The wild night has barely started when two Montana cowboys wind up dead on the barroom floor, one killed by Jasper, one by Newt.

The former Texans find themselves in jail with a mob outside shouting for a noose party.

Montana cattle king Greg Dunnigan comes to the rescue. Newt saved his much, much younger wife (Reese Witherspoon) from rustlers. Dunnigan returns the favor by having Newt and Jasper paroled to work on his ranch.

Over time, he comes to view Newt as the son he never had, a worthy heir to his ranch perhaps. And that’s in spite of the clearly growing affection between Newt and his wife.

Dunnigan’s also determined to maintain control over grazing land he helped settle. And his plan to organize the cattlemen into an association that will chase off newcomers and control prices clashes with Call’s desire for independence.

Meanwhile, the cowboys helping drive the mustangs to Montana are mostly vaqueros who got the job with the help of feisty young Agostina Vega.

She’s the bastard child of Augustus McCrae, Call’s original partner on the trip from Lonesome Dove to Montana.

And the way she heard it, Augustus raped her mother, who was later shot dead by none other than Capt. Woodrow F. Call.

Review:

This sequel to 1989’s “Lonesome Dove” picks up the day after the first mini-series ended. That turns out to be more of a curse than a blessing.

On its own, “Return to Lonesome Dove” isn’t a bad Western. Compared to “Lonesome Dove” … well, it’s a sad shadow of the original.

The wonderful characters played by Robert Duvall and Danny Glover died in “Lonesome Dove,” so those actors aren’t back.

Diane Lane’s Lorena Woods finally made it to San Francisco, so you won’t see her in the sequel either. And Tommy Lee Jones declined to reprise the role of Woodrow F. Call.

That leaves Voight and Ricky Scroder — the son he’s never recognized — to carry the sequel. Let’s just say they’re not up to the task.

Again, that doesn’t mean the sequel isn’t worth watching. Just don’t set your expectations at “Lonesome Dove” level. And don’t watch them back to back.

Voight’s best scene is a wild variant of Rod Steiger’s “Run of the Arrow” from the 1957 film by the same name.

This miniseries also benefits from the presence of Nia Peeples and Reese Witherspoon (pre-“Legally Blonde”) in interesting female roles.

Reese plays the lovely former Harvey Girl who opted to marry a much older man because it offered an opportunity to be queen on the biggest ranch in Montana.

But she loves teasing the young and bashful Newt Dobbs. She’ll even tempt him with a kiss, all the while proclaiming her love for her husband.

Peeples, the singer and former MTV VJ, is a pleasant addition to the cast as hard-riding tomboy Agostina Vega, even if her character is a poorly conceived mess.

Let’s see: She opens the film gunning down the grave marker of the man she believes raped her mother. She wouldn’t mind getting revenge against Call for her mother’s death.

And she accomplishes this by convincing friends to uproot their lives and journey to Montana with Call’s herd of mustangs? Oh, yeah, that makes sense.

For the record, this sequel was not the work of Larry McMurtry, author of the original “Lonesome Dove” novel.

Perhaps that explains this lack of logic. In one of the final lines of the first mini-series, Call was hailed as a visionary for creating the first cattle ranch in Montana.

But by the time this film opens, one day later, Montana is apparently filled with cattle ranches. Including the much larger Donnigan spread. Hmm.

Directed by:
Mike Robe

Cast:
Jon Voight … Capt. Woodrow F. Call
Barbara Hershey … Clara Allen
Ricky Schroder … Newt Dobbs
William Peterson … Capt. Gideon Walker
Oliver Reed … Gregor Dunnigan
Dennis Haysbert … Jack Jackson
Reese Witherspoon … Ferris Dunnigan
Timothy Scott … Pea Eye Parker
Chris Cooper … July Johnson
CCH Pounder … Sara Pickett
Nia Peeples … Agostina Vega
Barry Tubb … Jasper Flint
William Sanderson … Lippy Jones
Veronica Lauren … Sally Allen
Molly Orr … Betsy Allen
Louis Gossett Jr. … Isom Pickett
David Carpenter … Needle Nelson
Leon Singer … Boliver

Runtime: 322 min.

Memorable lines:

Woodrow F. Call, coming across Augustus McCra’se bullet-riddled grave marker: “Leave it to you, Augustus. First man I know to get himself into a shootin’ scrape after he’s dead.”

Woodrow F. Call: “Gideon Walker, you’re in a different world.”
Gideon: “Same world, captain. Different times.”

Gideon Walker, having been shot by a jealous husband: “He missed, Woodrow. He missed. He missed my bean by two inches. I’m goin’ to be alright.” At which point he collapses onto the barroom floor.

Cherokee Jack to Woodrow Call: “That civilized world of yours, captain — we ain’t part of it.”

Ferris to Newt Dobbs: “I don’t like feeling old. But I guess it’s better than feeling used. The way other men made me feel.”

Ferris to Newt Dobbs: “Sometimes, I think I’ve gone crazy and don’t know it yet.”

Newt Dobbs to Woodrow Call: “If you’re thinkin’ I’m bad seed, well you go ahead. And if I’m your seed, it’s dead certain.”

Nigel, businessman for the cattleman’s association: “An Englishman said it best. A poet, John Dunne: ‘No man is an island.'”
Woodrow Call: “I don’t much read poetry. A failing, I’m sure. But probably no worse than tellin’ other men how to run their affairs.”

Pea: “No offense, captain, but I never figured we’d be the first outfit to string barbed wire.”
Woodrow Call: “Life’s unpredictable, Pea. That’s the wonder of it.”

Pea: “All those Texas mustangs come all that way. I wonder what they think of Montana.”

Barry Tubb as Jasper Flint, the cowboy whose idea of a wild night in Miles City lands Newt in trouble in Return to Lonesome Dove (1993)

Louis Gossett Jr. as Isom Pickett, the old friend Call calls on to help drive mustangs to Montana in Return to Lonesome Dove (1993)

CCH Pounder as Sara Pickett, wife of Isom, who accompanies him on the journey to Montana in Return to Lonesome Dove (1993)

Chris Cooper as July Johnson, the former lawman badly burned when a brush fire destroys the Allen homestead in Return to Lonesome Dove (1993)

Reese Witherspoon as Ferris Dunnigan, the young woman who finds herself drawn to Newt though married to a much older and richer man in Return to Lonesome Dove (1993)

Nia Peeples as Agostina Vega, fearing trouble for the soldiers she left behind in Return to Lonesome Dove (1993)

Ricky Schroder as Newt Dobbs, fearing he’s made things worse by fleeing the trouble in Miles City in Return to Lonesome Dove (1993)