OrderToWatch Lonesome Dove poster

Lonesome Dove

Series, 1989, The '80s, Set in A cattle drive to Montana

Lonesome Dove is #22 of 34 in release order and #19 of 34 in chronological order in the Westerns.

The story

A pair of longtime friends and former Texas Rangers crave one last adventure before hanging-up their spurs. After stealing over a thousand head of cattle from rustlers south of the border, they recruit an unlikely crew of hands to drive the herd 3,000 miles north to the grasslands of Montana.

Lonesome Dove recap

Lonesome Dove (1989) follows two retired Texas Rangers who drive a stolen herd from the Rio Grande to Montana in the late 1870s. The CBS miniseries aired in four parts from February 5 to 8, 1989, directed by Simon Wincer and adapted by William D. Wittliff from Larry McMurtry's novel. Captain Augustus "Gus" McCrae (Robert Duvall), a talkative charmer, and Captain Woodrow F. Call (Tommy Lee Jones), a hard, silent worker, run a livery in Lonesome Dove with the tracker Joshua Deets (Danny Glover), Pea Eye Parker and the teenage Newt Dobbs, whose father only Gus knows is Call. When their old comrade Jake Spoon arrives on the run, his talk of Montana sends Call north. Gus agrees partly to visit Clara Allen (Anjelica Huston), the love he lost, now in Nebraska. Lorena Wood (Diane Lane), the town's prostitute, follows Jake and is kidnapped by the bandit Blue Duck; Gus rescues her. Sheriff July Johnson chases Jake from Arkansas. In the four parts, Leaving, On the Trail, The Plains and The Return, river crossings, storms and Jake's drift into a murderous gang wear down the outfit. Sequels and prequels followed, beginning with Return to Lonesome Dove (1993).

Lonesome Dove ending explained

Lonesome Dove ends, in part four, The Return, with Call carrying Gus's body back to Texas. Gus, wounded by arrows in Montana, refuses to let a doctor take his second leg and dies, asking Call to bury him back in Texas at a grove where he once picnicked with Clara. Before leaving, Call gives Newt his horse and his watch but cannot call him son. Deets has already been killed. In Lonesome Dove a reporter asks Call about being a man of vision. The story continued in Streets of Laredo (1995), Dead Man's Walk (1996) and Comanche Moon (2008).

Where to watch Lonesome Dove

Lonesome Dove is streaming on Prime Video, fuboTV, Peacock, Fandango at Home Free, Pluto TV, and Shout! Factory TV in the US. You can rent or buy it on Amazon, Google Play, and Fandango At Home.

Ratings

IMDb 8.6/10

Where it fits

Cast