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 SAGEBRUSH SUMMER |
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On Television |
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Robert Duvall saddles up
for another TV western
of TheColumnists.com
Robert Duvall’s
list of film credits range from “M*A*S*H”, “Bullitt,”
“The Godfather” (Parts 1 and 2), and “Apocalypse
Now,” to “The Natural”, “The Apostle,”
“Secondhand Lions,” and, most recently, “Thank
You For Smoking.”
Along the way, he also won the Academy Award as Best Actor of
1983, playing a broken down country singer in "Tender Mercies."
He’s also been no stranger to TV, with acclaimed appearances
in, among others,
the TV movies “The Man Who Captured Eichman” and “Stalin.”
But it is the 1989 CBS TV miniseries “Lonesome Dove”
that most people tend to associate with the veteran actor. His
performance as a re-energized former Texas ranger led to his
casting in a number of subsequent westerns, including the popular
Kevin Costner sagebrush epic "Open Range" in 2003.
And now he’s back in another TV western,
the two-part, four-hour “Broken Trail, ” AMC’s
first original movie for TV.
Set in 1897, Duvall plays aging cowboy Print Ritter who enlists
his estranged nephew Tom Harte (Thomas Haden Church) to help
him drive a herd of horses from Oregon to Wyoming. The lives
of both men change forever when they come across five young Chinese
women who have been enslaved as prostitutes and are being transported
east from San Francisco to a small mining town. They rescue the
young women, who speak only Mandarin, and take them along on
their horse drive, hoping to find a civil authority in a town
who can help the women find a home.
Westerns are not a staple on TV these days, not like they were
in the late 1950s when the ratings Top 20 regularly featured
the likes of “Gunsmoke,” “Wyatt Earp,” “Cheyenne,”
and “Wagon Train,” among others.
But just because the big and small screens
aren’t filled with westerns these days, Duvall doesn’t
feel the genre has fallen out of favor with viewers.
“It seems to me there has always [been] an interest. People
say ‘when will they make anothers western’? They say
we can’t make them because they don’t sell, but when
they do come out, people love them very much. I think there is
always a sporadic interest in the western. Whether it comes and
goes, it will always live, as the tango will always live in South
America,’’ the actor said in an interview.
(Duvall loves the tango as much as he loves
the western. He's a renowned tango dancer and finally shared
his love for the romantic Latin American dance when he wrote,
directed, co-produced and starred in "Assassination Tango,"
his 2003 film about a
Brooklyn hit man who's sent to Argentina to kill a general, but
falls in love with a tango dancer in the process.)
Can “Broken Trail” be compared to “Lonesome Dove?”
Duvall says, “I think our cast of actors are better than
‘Lonesome Dove.’ *
I’m not saying it’s going to
be that good, but at least we have a standard to go to, And even
though it’s televison, (that)
doesn’t mean it can’t be fine. I’ve seen performances
on television that match anything in feature films.”
Duvall freely admits “Dove” has left its mark on him:
“It’s the one film that I’m the most identified
with and which is the bible for most cowboys that I know, more
than all the John Ford movies put togther. The American cowboy
and the Canadian cowboy and the South American cowboy relate
to ‘Lonesome Dove’ more than anything.”
“Lonesome Dove” was, arguably, the gold standard when
it comes to westerns. Duvall underscores that point: “First
of all, we had six or seven hours to, you know, experiment and
discover a characterization. And it’s one of the great literary
characters that I’ve read and a great novel. A close friend
once said, 'You know, I think the novel of ‘Lonesome Dove’
equals or surpasses Dostoevsky...’ and that’s quite
a thing to say, but it is a great novel. Of all the characters
people tend to identify, when they come up to me on the street,
it’s more Augustus McCrae in ‘Lonesome Dove’ than
‘The Godfather’ or any of the other films I was fortunate
enough to be in.”
“Broken Trail” was shot over a 45-day period in the
Calgary, Alberta, Canada area. It was directed by big-screen
veteran Walter Hill (“48 Hrs.,” “Another 48 Hrs,”
). The cast also includes Greta Scacchi, Scott Cooper, Chris
Mulkey and Gwendoline Yeo (Xiao-Mei on “Desperate Housewives”).
(* For those who may have forgotten, the cast of “Lonesome
Dove” was pretty impressive. Tommy Lee Jones played Duvall’s
former Texas Ranger buddy in the drama about a cattle drive from
Texas to Montana. Anjelica Huston, Diane Lane, Danny Glover,
Rick Schroder, Glenne Headly, William Sanderson, Frederic Forest
and Chris Cooper rounded out the cast. The miniseries was based
on the book by famed western novelist Larry McMurtry, and it
was the winner of the prestigious Peabody Award.)
SOMETHING NEW THIS SUMMER
If you’re already tired of the slew of reality shows filling
the networks’ schedule this summer, there are some new good
(read non-reality) programs out there! Starting July 12 and running
for four weeks, TNT hopes to cool down the hot summer with “Nightmares
& Dreamscapes From the Stories of Stephen King.”
The series consists of eight tales, two airing per night on four
consecutive Wednesdays. It kicks off at 9 p.m. July 12 with “Battleground,”
starring Oscar-winner William Hurt. He plays a hit man who, after
he murders the CEO of a top toy company, faces the fight of his
life when a package from the company is delivered to his home
with surprising--and deadly--contents. This first installment
will air uninterrupted and commercial free.
Other stars featured in this summer scare fest include William
H. Macy, Marsha Mason, Richard Thomas and Ron Livingstone.
MORE FROM COUSTEAU
“Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures” returns to
PBS with two new specials in July. “Sharks at Risk”
will air at 8 p.m. July 12, and “The Gray Whale Obstacle
Course,’’ at 8 p.m. July 19. (Check local TV listings
for times in your area.)
©2006 by Donna J. Plesh. The photo is courtesy of the Robert Duvall Fan site. This column first posted on June 19, 2006.
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