heyitsenricopollazo I'm not sure I've seen a movie truer to the book as this one. The first couple of scenes with David Arquette as Gus are brutal, but he gets better due to the fact he looks like a younger Gus. Overall it's a great tribute to a wonderful book!

adonis98-743-186503 In this prequel to "Lonesome Dove", two young men join the Texas Rangers unit that's on a mission to annex Santa Fe. Although i felt that both David Arquette as Augustus McCrae and Jonny Lee Miller as Woodrow F. Call brought nothing to the plot and were kinda forgettable and uninteresting this Mini-TV Series packed great performances by Keith Carradine, Harry Dean Stanton and Edward James Olmos. It also stayed true to this old westerns and Cowboys v.s Indians which was something that reminded me a lot of my childhood i think that Episodes 1 and 3 had the most impact on me they were very interesting because Episode 2 kinda drugged many times but other than that pretty good series and people who like this sort of types of films or shows or even grew up with westerns won't be disappointed (7.5/10)

kliffnotes There were some elements of this film that I found unrealistic and caused me to stop watching. Here are a few examples. At one point, a group of well armed men sit and watch with horror as an Indian on horseback chases down and scalps one of their own. They were carrying long rifles and the distance was clearly within range of a Hawkins type rifle (let's say 100 yards or so). Even if they had been out of range, they could have mounted horses and moved up. In any case, in that situation, I'm sure any frontiersman would have shot that Indian right off of his pony. Also, in one scene, one of the characters picks up a severed turtle head. It looks realistic enough but from the way he squeezes it and it caves in without any resistance, one can see that the head is hollow and made of rubber. A little more careful handling by the actor would not have given this away although we all know a real turtle head wasn't used in filming.

Bryce Rumbles This is a wonderful evocation of its period. The writing, direction and especially the acting are all above average -- even David Arquette does a reasonably successful job of playing a 30-years younger Robert Duvall-as-Gus-McCrae. He may be imitating Duvall's performance somewhat, but he does a decent job -- it's quite believable that this Gus McCrae developed into the later one.Jonny Lee Miller -- so tight-lipped it's sometimes unbelievable -- does a good job with a thankless role -- "Corporal" Woodrow Call, as the young Clara dubs him (to Gus's consernation).Jennifer Garner played Clara very well. Her flirtatious flippancy is both alluring and endearing -- and only a little annoying.Edward James Olmos is perfect, as usual. He's one of my favorite actors, has been since Zoot Suit.The costuming and setting are exemplary and very true to the pre-Mexican War Southwest.The only technical/historical problem I have with this film is the weaponry. The flintlock muskets and rifles don't sound correct, and don't discharge nearly enough smoke. (SEMI-SPOILER COMING) No firing squad would shoot with bayonets attached (they detract from accuracy). But the mixture of Colt's Patent Revolvers (tm) and single-shot pistols was correct.Of course this work pales in comparison to the book -- even the excellent Lonesome Dove was no match for the book. But this is far superior to the L-D sequel, Streets of Laredo.