Comanche Moon

Comanche Moon
Produced for CBS Television
Directed by Simon Wincer

Comanche Moon is the final installment of the Lonesome Dove series of made-for-tv movies. The series is based on Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove series of book which began with his Pulitzer Prize winning Lonesome Dove. Both series continued with "Streets of Laredo", then "Dean Man’s Walk" and finishing up with "Comanche Moon", while the story itself begins chronologically with "Dead Man’s Walk" and ends with "Streets of Larado". Confusing, yes, but McMurtry’s way of defy expectations after unexpectedly winning the Pulitzer for a novel he admits to not liking very much.

Comanche Moon continues the story of Texas Rangers Augustus McCrae and Woodrow F. Call, played respectively by Steve Zahn and Karl Ubran, of Lord of the Rings fame, as they battle Comanche Warriors and Mexican bandits on the last frontiers of Texas. For non-followers of the books, this takes place just BEFORE the Lonesome Dove movie.

Growing up in Wyoming you get enjoyment out of western movies. A lot has been made lately about the Native-content in films these days and rightly so. But I’ve always been a fan of the original Lonesome Dove movie as are many Natives. I grew up respecting the cowboy lifestyle as my father was a cowboy, as are my brothers. I grew up watching John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, which is why I enjoy "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly", "The Searchers", admire a series such as "Deadwood" and which is why I enjoyed "Comanche Moon".

What grounded the series for me was Steve Zahn’s performance as Gus McCrae, first brought to life in "Lonesome Dove" by the great performance of Robert Duvall. Zahn captures the mannerisms and syntax of Duvall’s performance while making the character his own. Urban, however, is unaffecting as Call, first played by the great Tommy Lee Jones. But the weight of Zahn’s acting brought to life one of my favorite moments in the book (Yes, I’ve read all of them, twice.); when Gus and Call decide to strike out on their own to rescue their captain, on the banks of the Rio Grande in the half-built town of Lonesome Dove. Seeing it played out on screen with Zahn’s performance made me smile as it fit my imagination. Such is a rare thing.

What drags this series down is the inevitable circumstance which befalls most prequels, more specifically, prequels that are made due to fan expectation. (Think the Star Wars movies), which is that every little detail must be explained or seen in the movie or it is considered a failure in the eyes of the fans. I am for leaving some ambiguity, sometimes. Think Hannibal Lecter, or The Joker in Batman, but Comanche Moon seems to trip over itself in explaining why Call is the way he is or trotting out the characters from "Lonesome Dove" but in younger forms. McMurtry actually wrote the sequel novel and prequels so as to not let anyone else do it. But he did it in his own fashion because sometimes the continuity does not line up or the novels contradict what was written in the Lonesome Dove novel.

But all that aside, I did enjoy the series. I know that they did research into the Comanche culture and it remains to be seen if they got it correct. I am sure there will be more than one website or review who will list every little detail they got wrong. But that is the easy thing to do. It is like priding yourself on being a good shot when all you shoot is fish in a barrel. It is harder to appreciate the story for just being a story, and the Lonesome Dove Saga has always been about Augustus McCrae and Woodrow F. Call and not the Natives. We have our own Native movie makers to tell our own stories.

While I did enjoy seeing some famous Native faces, they are all mostly wasted. Especially poor Floyd Westermann, who has padded in. It sort of takes something out of it when you can tell none of the primary Native actors spoke Comanche fluently. It seemed stilted. It reminded me of Shonie De Le Rosa’s movie Mile Post 398 in which the entire cast is Navajo and spoke it very well. In contrast to, say, the Hillerman Mystery Movies on PBS where they speak it phonetically. You can tell who is Navajo.

Wes Studi (Buffalo Hump) is Cherokee and to hear him speak Cherokee in "Trail of Tears: the Cherokee Legacy" so elegantly and then to hear him stilt through the Comanche language sort of harms the performance. I wish they had Comanches playing Comanches. Soon enough. I was also sad to see that a couple of my favorite chapters of the book were excised:

In rescuing Inish Scull (Val Kilmer at his hammy best), the Kickapoo tracker Famous Shoes (played nicely by David Midthunder, and probably the best Native performance of the series), follows Gus and Call into Mexico to recover the bones of Three Birds, a Comanche character who dies in the captivity of the Mexican Bandit Ahumado. (Ironically, Famous Shoes was first played by Wes Studi in the series "Streets of Laredo".)

Yet, in the novel this happens in two chapters in which the Comanche Warriors, Buffalo Hump and Kicking Wolf, the famed horse thief who was there when Three Birds died, ride into Mexico on their own to recover the bones. Those two chapters were cool; nicely written, starkly quiet, and very humanizing to the Comanche characters. They bickered, talked, camped, and just hung out like two old friends do. They then gathered the bones and then simply ride back home. Those two chapters, plus the scene of Gus and Call by the Rio Grande made me hope for a television adaptation.

Hell, I would have directed those Comanche scenes for free if it meant having them in the series.

That those chapters were not included is also major disappointment for me. But seeing the early life of Gus and Call and the end of the Lonesome Dove series is well worth a watch. Not the be all end all of Native representation, but worth a look if you are a fan of the Lovesome Dove Saga. Recommended.