McMurtry's Old West is not a pleasant place, and Streets of Laredo is not for the faint of heart. It's a lawless, racist, brutal world where might may not make right, but it certainly holds sway in isolated desert towns and lonely trails. Yet for all the tragedy and violence, McMurtry finds hope in the love and respect that breaks down racial barriers, holds families together, and creates new ones. --Sean Axmaker

Larry McMurtry's Streets of Laredo

• Dead Man's Walk
• Return to Lonesome Dove
• Comanche Moon
• Lonesome Dove
• Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years
• Broken Trail (Two-disc)
• Johnson County War
• Lonesome Dove - The Series
• Louis L'Amour's The Sacketts
• Lonesome Dove: The Ultimate Collection (10-DVD Set)

What a shame that no-one thought to talk to anyone about how this fascinating series came to be. The movie is a manhunt, for a young Mexican killer - a boy from a good family who was captured by the Apache and was bad ever since. The beauty of McMurty's writing is that the whole thing never once fits any of the Western clichés, and convinces throughout with its ring of truth. What is truly remarkable is that the heart of the movie lies with the women. Apart from Spacek, good performances abound, from Sam Shephards understated Pea Eye, to James Garner's nuanced Captain Call. Captain Call is now a bounty hunter - past his best, failing eyesight and getting old, but still with his own inherent sense of what's right intact.

Extras are light - a text only interview with Garner and Spacek, and text only McMurty bio and bibliography. It's a sad fact that as a TV movie this tends to fall into the sideline of history, but this is a solid piece of intelligently put together film-making which deserves your attention. Sissy Spacek playing Lorena, personifies this as the ex-whore who protects her family and loves her husband with intensity and conviction of one who believes that life can and will be better. And yet every character however small is drawn as if from life, with details, flaws and occasional moments of glory making sense.

The action scenes are short, and for the most part unexpected in both their appearance and their results. For the trip, Call seeks the help of his one time corporal, Pea Eye, and is joined by a city man who represents the railroad that hires him.

Where `Return.' dealt with the cattle barons and themes of redemption and wholesome endings, this is a stark and realistic portrayal of the West.

It's her best performance in years. It's one of Masterclass performances where by never letting us catch him acting, we feel like we know him as the character - and when his face shows near nothing, we are convinced we know what he's thinking.

Here, the violent men of the burgeoning West are a dying breed (no pun intended) and that sense of a time in history passing is present throughout the whole movie. A long way from the Hollywoodised version of a Lonesome Dove sequel seen in `Return from Lonesome Dove', this is Larry McMurty's riposte to the way the Studio handled that sequel.

They are presented as the real heroes of the West - they suffered, they kept to what is right, and they made a life for themselves and their families no matter what life they had come from.

It is all part of the great Lonesome Dove series. This is a pretty good video. Kind of sad, but at least he lives on, unlike Gus did.

Typical Amazon shipping - fast and well wraped. Excellent film. The story is great.

Lonesome Dove is one of the greatest movies of all times. I had hopes the follow up would be close to the same but it lacked in every way. It drags and does not live up to Lonesome Dove. Very disappointing. The cast is not nearly as good and the movie is just tiring all the way through.

I think Garner does not pull off the emotional retardation but endearing loyalty and sense of honor of Captain Call seen in the Lonesome Dove movie. I dislike the fact that Call is defeated by modern technology and is not placed on a more even plane with the bads guys. Only McMurtry can create the complex characters in his books and movies that are rich in chacterization and compelling to watch and read about. There are disappointments in the outcome of the main chacters and the directions of the stories, but overall they are great reads and movies are compelling to watch. As a reader and western genre fan it has been enjoyable. I highly recommend all of the Lonesome Dove novels.

But the movie captures the feel of the west in the 1890's, with great scenery from the American southwest and good dialogue. But Comanche Moon mini series stimulated me to read and watch all the books and movies asociated with Lonesome Dove. I admit after watching Lonesome Dove in the early 90's I neither read or watched any of the other Lonesome Dove movies or books up until this year. Still it is a credible acting job.