Movies

I missed "Comanche Moon" when it was broadcast on CBS. I rarely watch movies with commercials and even the lure of a Larry McMurtry adaption from the "Lonesome Dove" series couldn't entice me to set aside three nights viewing time.
Last week I followed my plan and picked the film up from Netflix. Watching it in two sessions with no interruptions was worth the wait.
And so was the movie.
"Comanche Moon" fits second in the four film series. Gus and Woodrow are mature men, experienced Texas Rangers serving the state of Texas before the Civil War.
Their old adversary, Buffalo Hump, is back, causing the boys problems. Worse, his even nastier son Blue Duck is on the prowl, raping and killing at his leisure.
The story follows the boys final days in the Rangers and they pay their visit to a little south Texas town called Lonesome Dove. The Comanches, white men crowding them at every angle, are on the warpath, keeping Gus, Woodrow, Deets, Jake Spoon and Pea Eye plenty busy. They serve in the Rangers under a crazy Englishman named Inish Scull, a brilliant but highly eccentric commander who takes it on himself to track down his stolen horse. That forces his to cross paths with the vilest of the Indians, the torturer Ahumado.
Val Kilmer is really good as the flamboyant lunatic Scull and Steve Zahn channels Robert Duvall into this new version of Woodrow Call. I didn't like Kark Urban's Call nearly as much but he grows on you. Linda Cardinelli does fine as Gus's great love, Clara.
Overall the cast is excellent.
"Comanche Moon" is a bawdy and brutal tale and the made-for-tv format and more restrained budget limits how much you can do in those directions, but this production does a fine job of capturing the spirit of McMurtry's masterful work.