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(More customer reviews)I once read that when Larry McMurtry saw RETURN TO LONESOME DOVE he was so enraged he responded by writing "Streets of Laredo." A Lonesome Dove fan such as myself can only speculate what kind of sequel might have been written had "Return" never hit the airwaves. Maybe the characters of Newt and July Johnson would have survived into such a sequel; perhaps the Hat Creek Cattle Company would have flourished in Montana, rather than Call having to go back to Texas to eek out a living as a bounty hunter. But I digress.
RETURN TO LONESOME DOVE tries hard, very hard, to deliver a story worthy enough to follow the original mini-series. And with gifted actors like Jon Voight, Oliver Reed, and Louis Gossett, Jr., it certainly had the star power. But instead, this sequel goes down the road of "been there, done that": another livestock drive from Texas to Montana (only this time, the animals are wild horses); another murderous half-breed villain (Dennis Haysbert as "Cherokee Jack"); and a "new" Gus McRae in the form of Ranger Gideon Walker (William Peterson). We also are given a bonus storyline centering around Gus' illegitimate daughter, appropriately named Augustina Vega (Nia Peeples), who hates her late father and is obsessed to confront Call, who she believes is responsible for the death of her mother. Throw a grumpy and petulant Clara Allen (Barbara Hershey) into the mix, and RETURN TO LONESOME DOVE comes across as contrived and as palatable as a piece of horse leather.
The cast does well with what it has to work with, and to be fair, the film does contain some poignant and entertaining moments. But RETURN TO LONESOME DOVE's most glaring fault is the fact that it was made at all. The producers should have adhered to the old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
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