One of the highlights from the most recent Saturday Night Live was the “Jack Sparrow” video by Michael Bolton and Lonely Island, the group featuring Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone. The group has had a number of hilarious songs, and they are releasing their album, Turtleneck & Chain, this week. Lonely Island’s work also includes “I Just Had Sex” (feat. Akon) and the classic “Lazy Sunday.”
The new video, “Jack Sparrow,” features Michael Bolton, who does an outstanding job. Whether you are a fan of humor or of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, just watch it yourself.
The original Lonesome Dove is one of the finest miniseries and westerns. Lonesome Dove, based on the novel by Larry McMurtry, originally ran on television in 1989. It followed the adventures of Augustus “Gus” McRae, played by Robert Duvall, and Woodrow F. Call, played by Tommy Lee Jones, and also featured Diane Lane, Danny Glover, Anjelica Huston, and Chris Cooper.
Lonesome Dove’s success spawned several sequels and prequels. Maybe you have not seen any of them and are wondering where to start, or maybe you have seen Lonesome Dove and wondered whether the others are worth your time. Well, Chimesfreedom is grading each series on a scale of 1-10, addressing each one in chronological order by the time period covered. In this post, we rate the prequels as well as the original Lonesome Dove. Future posts will address other series in the franchise.
Dead Man’s Walk (1996)
Set in the early 1840’s, Dead Man’s Walk follows the adventures of a young Gus and Woodrow, including a deadly forced walk across a desert after they are captured by the Mexican Army. Generally, the acting is good, featuring standout performances by Keith Carradine and Edward James Olmos. Johnny Lee Miller also does a very good job as the young Woodrow Call, while David Arquette’s portrayal of Gus leaves one wondering how the goofy young man survived to be the competent westerner portrayed in Lonesome Dove by Robert Duvall.
Overall, the characters are engaging and the story and suspense are very good in Dead Man’s Walk, with the small exception of an odd sequence of events at the end to help Gus and Woodrow get home, leaving one thinking, “WTF?” Rating: 7
Comanche Moon (2008)
Comanche Moon follows a little older Woodrow and Gus in the 1850s-1860s. Of all of the series, this one has the fewest big name actors, with Val Kilmer as the sole major movie star in an odd over-the-top character performance.
You will recognize other actors from TV, such as Linda Cardellini (from Freaks & Geeks and ER) as Clara. Steve Zahn, who often plays the comic sidekick in movies like That Thing You Do!, plays Gus McRae. His performance largely mimics Robert Duvall’s acting in Lonesome Dove, and it grew on me. You may enjoy the Robert Duvall impersonation or be annoyed by it.
You may recognize other faces too. Karl Urban, the Dr. McCoy in the new Star Trek franchise, plays Woodrow Call. Additionally, Wes Studi (Dances with Wolves, Last of the Mohicans) stars as Buffalo Hump, the father of Blue Duck, who features more prominently in the original Lonesome Dove.
Comanche Moon probably received the worst reviews of all of the Lonesome Dove series. And it has the weakest stand-alone story and acting of the series.
But unlike Dead Man’s Walk, which just told an adventure story using two of the main characters from Lonesome Dove, Comanche Moon provides a back story of the characters to set up Lonesome Dove, like the way the Star Wars prequels did. If you really love Lonesome Dove, you might want to see more of the background of the familiar characters, how Newt was born, how the town of Lonesome Dove got started, how Gus lost Clara, etc. But some things may be better left to the imagination. Rating: 5
Lonesome Dove (1989): The Classic
Lonesome Dove is the cream of the crop of all of the Lonesome Dove series. The series follows an aging Gus and Woodrow in the 1870s out for one last big adventure, while also conveying a meditation on friendship, aging, family, mortality, and the end of the West. By far, of all the series, this one has the best story, the best acting, the best music, etc.
Lonesome Dove is not only the best of this series, it ranks with the greatest Western films of all-time. Time Out London recently ranked it among the Top 50 Westerns, although I’d rank it even higher than they did. Robert Duvall recently said in Esquire (Jan. 2011): “When I finished Lonesome Dove, I said to myself, Now I can retire. I’ve done something. Let the English play Hamlet. I’ll play Augustus McCrae.” Amen. The book won the Pulitzer Prize and the series won seven Emmys. Rating: 10
Another Prequel?
In 2014, the movie Lonesome Dove Church, directed by Terry Miles and starring Tom Berenger, was released. Is there any connection between the film and the Lonesome Dove series? Promotional material for the movie, including an interview with Berenger, make no reference to the series. But Barnes & Noble claims that the movie is a prequel to the series started by Larry McMurtry.
Lonesome Dove Church is advertised as the true story of the founding of the Lonesome Dove Church in Grapevine, Texas. Berenger plays a preacher in the old West who works to save his outlaw son and eventually build a church.
Because the church is named after the preacher sees a dove and because it is located in a town called Grapevine, it is likely that the church in the series has nothing to do with the fictional town created by Larry McMurtry. Yet, McMurtry has noted that he came up with the name “Lonesome Dove” while eating at a steakhouse and seeing a church bus for Lonesome Dove Baptist Church from Southlake, Texas. Thus, while Lonesome Dove Church is a decent but not great Western, we are not going to discuss it further in the context of the Lonesome Dove universe.
In Part 2 of this series, Chimesfreedom will consider the Lonesome Dove miniseries that take place after Lonesome Dove, including how the network struggled to keep one main character alive while author Larry McMurtry summarily killed the character with merely a sentence. Check out all four posts on Rating the Lonesome Dove Series.
Blues legend Robert Johnson (probably) was born on May 8, 1911 in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. Although he was only 27 when he died — possibly poisoned by a jealous husband in Mississippi — and he only left us 29 recordings, he is more than a legend in the music world. The singer and guitar player who allegedly sold his soul to the Devil for his guitar skills has influenced generations of musicians.
In Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues, Elijah Wald recounts a description of the birth written by Peter Guralnick: “Robert Johnson was born probably on May 8, 1911, the eleventh child of Julia Major Dodds, whose ten older children were all the offspring of her marriage to Charles Dodds. Robert was illegitimate, which . . . was the cause of the name confusion and the cause of many of Johnson’s later problems.”
Here is a roundup of some websites about Johnson and stories from 2011 about the 100th anniversary of his birth:
– A Sudbury Star article discusses Robert Johnson’s life and his influence on modern musicians.
– USA Today gives an overview of events occurring to celebrate the anniversary, along with a video of Gregg Allman talking about Johnson.
Of course, it all comes down to the music, so consider Robert Johnson playing and singing “Cross Road Blues.” Although many assume the song is about Johnson’s encounter with Satan at the crossroads, there is no mention of the Devil in the song. Instead, the song is most likely about the singer’s attempt to get home before dark, a genuine fear during a time when African-Americans did not want to encounter lynching parties in the South.
For an electric version of the song, here is Eric Clapton introduced his version of “Crossroads,” by explaining what Johnson means to him. “It really shook me up.”
Robert Johnson seems to be such a legendary figure of the past, one may find it hard to believe that his birth was not really that long ago. He could have lived to be alive today. Happy birthday Mr. Johnson, wherever you are.
Happy Mother’s Day this weekend! One famous movie mom was Beulah Bondi’s portrayal of Ma Baily in It’s a Wonderful Life. It was a great performance, including a touching scene with her son George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, as she sends him off to court Mary Hatch, played by Donna Reed. At the other extreme, in an alternate reality in the same movie, Bondi plays a bitter and angry version of the character who does not recognize her son.
Did you know that Beulah Bondi played Jimmy Stewart’s mother in a total of four movies? She also was his mother in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Vivacious Lady (1938 ), and Of Human Hearts (1938).
I did recently catch her as Stewart’s mom in Of Human Hearts on the Turner Classic Movies Channel. In that movie, she plays a faithful mother to Jimmy Stewart’s ungrateful son, resulting in Bondi’s second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. I learned of the persistent Stewart-Bondi connection from Robert Osborne on TCM when the movie ended. This “Top Ten Facts About It’s a Wonderful Life” also notes the connection.
I have not seen Vivacious Lady, which finally became available on DVD after this original post was written. Bondi makes a brief appearance in this trailer for Vivacious Lady at around the 2:35 mark.
Beulah Bondi gave memorable performances in other movies, including Make Way for Tomorrow(1937), where she played an abandoned mother, and Our Town (1940), where again she played a mother but not to Stewart. Her other Oscar nomination resulted from The Gorgeous Hussy (1936), where she did not play Jimmy Stewart’s mom. Bondi regretted not playing the role of Ma Joad in Grapes of Wrath (1940), where she missed portraying the mother of Stewart’s good friend, Henry Fonda.
Bondi appeared on several television shows, winning an Emmy for a performance as Aunt Martha Corinne Walton on a 1976 episode of The Waltons. Her TV work also occasionally reunited her with Stewart. IMDb notes that Bondi played Stewart’s mother in one episode of The Jimmy Stewart Television Show (1971). Earlier, she appeared in one 1957 episode of G.E. True Theater, called “A Town with a Past,” with Stewart, although apparently not as his mother.
In movies today, producers’ obsession with an actress’s age sometimes lead them to cast a mother who is in reality too young to be the mother of the actor son. For example, in The Fighter (2010), Melissa Leo played Mark Wahlberg’s mother while being only 11 years older than him. But in Bondi’s case, she was a more realistic age to play Stewart’s mother. She was born May 3, 1888 and Stewart was born May 20, 1908, which would have made her 20 years old when she gave birth to the fictional James Stewart.
In real life, one of the movies’ greatest moms never married and never became a mother herself, passing away in 1981. But Bondi’s warm portrayal of movie mothers gives her a special place in the hearts of anyone who loves old movies or moms. So Happy Mother’s Day to Beulah Bondi, to my mom, to the other mothers out there, and to all those who were born by mothers.
Probably the person most famous for announcing deaths is DeForest Kelley, i.e., Doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy on the original Star Trek (1966-1969) series. This post considers when Kelley first said the notorious phrase and why he did not utter the declaration during the most memorable Star Trek death scene of all time.
A few weeks ago, I watched The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956), starring Gregory Peck. While watching the movie, I noticed Kelley appearing in a small role and saying the line that would be immortalized on Star Trek in different variations: “This man’s dead, Captain.” The commentary on The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit DVD pointed out that DeForest Kelley appears in the movie in an uncredited role in just the one scene. Kelley plays the doctor approached by Gregory Peck’s character, who is carrying his injured friend. When Gregory Peck asks the doctor for help, Kelley utters the memorable line (at around the 18-second mark) that he would repeat many times throughout his career. Did this scene launch his career?
Of course, others have pointed out the connection in the past. But it was surprising to actually see it come out of nowhere while watching The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.
Who would have guessed while watching the movie that Kelley would build a career around proclaiming someone dead? See the video below for a montage of some of Dr. McCoy’s greatest hits.
In a key scene of what is probably the best Star Trek movie,Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, McCoy’s famous line was given to another character. According to Wikipedia — which cites Terry Lee Rioux’s biography of DeForest Kelley, From Sawdust to Stardust, Kelley recognized that his death announcements had turned into punch lines. So, he thought that if he said his famous “he’s dead” line about Mr. Spock, it would ruin the seriousness of the death scene. Therefore, in the movie, James Doohan’s Scotty tells William Shatner’s Kirk the news about his friend: “He’s dead already.”
One of the highlights from the most recent Saturday Night Live was the “Jack Sparrow” video by Michael Bolton and Lonely Island, the group featuring Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone. The group has had a number of hilarious songs, and they are releasing their album, Turtleneck & Chain
, Elijah Wald recounts a description of the birth written by Peter Guralnick: “Robert Johnson was born probably on May 8, 1911, the eleventh child of Julia Major Dodds, whose ten older children were all the offspring of her marriage to Charles Dodds. Robert was illegitimate, which . . . was the cause of the name confusion and the cause of many of Johnson’s later problems.”
, Kelley recognized that his death announcements had turned into punch lines. So, he thought that if he said his famous “he’s dead” line about Mr. Spock, it would ruin the seriousness of the death scene. Therefore, in the movie, James Doohan’s Scotty tells William Shatner’s Kirk the news about his friend: “He’s dead already.”