39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More of a portrait, less of a traditional movie, October 4, 2004
This is not a plot-driven movie so much as it is a portrait of that moment in time when the Old West was disappearing and the men who made the Old West what it was had to adjust, die or just fade away.
It is beautifully shot and there is a lot of attention to detail. If one is looking for a ton of action, this is not the western you are looking for. But, if you love cowboy movies this one is a real treat. It would make the watcher wistful for those days when the horse ruled the west, except that you know that Monte Walsh would have none of that pointless sentiment.
No living actor looks more like a cowboy should than Tom Selleck and I'd be thrilled if he focused on those movies for the rest of his career.
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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A GREAT WESTERN THAT REQUIRES THOUGHT, August 28, 2003
By A Customer
Not since Will Penny starring Charlton Heston has there been a western that defies the stereotypes and presents a story that requires some thought--real thought. The thinking person's western doesn't get a lot of attention but when it does...well, Monte Walsh with Tom Selleck is all the evidence that you need.
Don't get me wrong, I love a good, classic, predictable western as much as the next armchair cowboy. But Monte Walsh, and, especially Tom Selleck in the role, is a breath of fresh air. It's too bad that Mr. Selleck wasted all that time on Magnum PI (okay, I loved that too) when he should have been defining the new western hero as he has done with Quigley Down Under, Crossfire Trail and, now, Monte Walsh.
Along with Selleck, great performances by Isabella Rosselini, Keith Carradine, William Devane, Robert Carradine, George Eads, and Marshall Teague assure us that, whether it is on the silver screen or on the open plains of Wyoming or Montana, the Cowboy Spirit rides on.
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45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
When riding fence is all that's left, March 10, 2006
Directed by Simon Wincer (LONESOME DOVE, QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER, CROSSFIRE TRAIL, INTO THE WEST), MONTE WALSH, which won the 2004 Bronze Wrangler Award for Outstanding Television Feature Film, didn't even register as a faint blip on my radar when it was first released. I'm glad that I've since come across it.
Tom Selleck, in the title role, is an aging cowboy at the turn of the 19th century. Arriving back in town after wintering on the range minding a cattle herd, Monte and his trail pardner, Chet Rollins (Keith Carradine), learn that the hard season has broken the backs of the local ranch owners and their spreads are being bought up by a consortium of Eastern dudes. Jobs are scarce, but Walsh and Rollins are hired by Cal Brennan (William Devane), a former owner now managing the consortium's local holding. Cowboys are a dying breed and, as Monte and Chet soon discover, times only get tougher as even the distant bosses can't show a profit.
Ostensibly in Wyoming but actually filmed in the gorgeous Canadian Rockies, MONTE WALSH is a bittersweet tale of a man, supremely talented in a very narrow niche, finding himself outliving his best friend (Chet), his long-time lover, the aging saloon whore "Countess" Martine (Isabella Rossellini), and his own ability to earn a living in the only craft he's ever known.
Except for Selleck, Carradine, and Devane, the film is populated by actors that you may not recognize, though it's good to see again Barry Corbin (Deputy Roscoe Brown in LONESOME DOVE) as Bob the Storekeeper and William Sanderson (Lippy in LONESOME DOVE, E.B Farnum in DEADWOOD, and Larry of NEWHART) as the odiferous ranch cook, Skimpy.
Perhaps the most poignant and tragic scene involves a cowboy nicknamed "Fightin' Joe Hooker" (James Gammon), who, at the end of his career, is relegated to "riding fence", i.e. stringing barbed wire to a line of fence posts stretching endlessly across the landscape - the most hated of ranch jobs. Joe got his moniker from having ridden alongside the real General "Fightin' Joe" Hooker at the Battle of Missionary Ridge back in '64. Now, his spirit crushed by age and lack of prospects, Joe deliberately races his mount over a precipice to their deaths. Only after his demise do the other ranch hands, while going though his meager belongings, learn that his real name was simply Albert Miller.
MONTE WALSH isn't a great film, but I enjoyed it immensely for its perspicacity regarding the end of an era in general, and the challenge confronting the individual at life's useful end in particular. At some point, I suspect, we're all faced with "riding fence".
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