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Summary: Monte faces a new world.
Review: Monte Walsh is a dramatic western released in 2003 starring Tom Selleck. Along with Selleck is a star cast, with Isabella Rossellini, James Gammon, Marshall Teague, William Devane, and Keith Carradine giving fine performances. The director, Simon Wincer, is also known for making westerns such as Shane and Lonesome Dove. Monte Walsh features a recurrent theme of man vs. technology, but it can be very forceful in presentation. Monte Walsh is introduced in Antelope Junction, Wyoming territory in 1892. It is a comfortable, familiar surrounding, which suits Monte well, with no hint of modernization. Monte is leaving to winter on the range and while he is gone, an eastern corporation, Consolidated Cattle, is changing the cowboy lifestyle in the Wyoming territory. Consolidated has been buying all the land surrounding Antelope Junction, and fencing it in. This is unknown in the territory, putting a stop to free-ranging cattle. Consolidated has also allowed a railroad to build on the land with a railhead to help load horses, which the cowboys are not happy with. It is a new replacement that stops the cowboys from doing the job they love, moving stock from one place to another. Monte and his best friend Chet get a job with Consolidated, who now is the only employer of cowboys in the area. The theme continues as Monte and his fellow cowboys battle a train, the dreaded new development in their environment, whose engineers have done them wrong. The cowboys win the battle, but everyone fears they have lost the war against impending technology. Meanwhile Monte has fallen in love with Martine, the whore with a heart of gold, but cannot force himself to leave his life as a cowboy to enter a world that he does not know as a family man. Chet decides to do just that and marries a widow who owns a hardware store. He begins to run the store and becomes involved with town life, leaving his old ways behind. After having the theme of the movie forced upon the viewer, the style changes and symbolism is used to represent the battle against the new way of life. Consolidated is used as a symbol of impending technology, as they lay off cowboys to help increase the corporation's return on their investment. One cowboy turns to crime since he did not know how else to make a living in the new world. The rogue cowboy kills Chet in a holdup and Monte hunts him down to avenge Chet's death, symbolizing how the past must take care of what technology has caused. Monte is wounded by the outlaw, but continues on to kill the cowboy gone wrong. The wounding symbolizes what has been done to Monte and the other cowboys by the changing times, but the cowboy way continues on to fix what has gone wrong. Monte does not return to Antelope Junction for seven years. He has decided to ride to Canada, down to Texas and back, living the cowboy life as the world leaves him behind. He arrives to find a horseless carriage driven by the former accountant and new ranch manager of Consolidated. The old meets the new as they both meet in the road and neither refuse to yield their ground. Finally Monte moves aside for the new invention to go through. After discovering that while he was gone, things have changed in Antelope Junction, he decides to leave again. It is not shown what he plans to do, or where he plans to go, but it is hopeful he finds a new place where the old cowboy lifestyle has not diminished, but appreciated. I would give this movie three stars out of five. The theme can sometimes be overbearing, sometimes with the subtleties of a sledgehammer. However, the viewer can feel sympathy for Monte and make parallels into modern times. It serves as a documentary about those who embrace new technology and those who choose to stay behind.
Rating: 
Summary: This IS the America I know and love...
Review: Monte Walsh is a welcomed reminder that this country really did have men with fortitude and integrity. The story of course is a tragedy in the sense that an era was coming to an unfortunate end. This movie is well done and superbly acted. The Western is NOT dead - neither is the American ideal of pride in one's work, loyalty towards one's friends, and compromise is NOT worth ANY price. -- K.K. Dunn, Kansas City
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Summary: A GREAT WESTERN THAT REQUIRES THOUGHT
Review: 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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Summary: Truly an enjoyable and decent fine movie!
Review: Such a rarity to see a story told with with respect. It was a joy viewing this movie and not having your intelligence or heritage insulted, with insane anti-Western P.C. foul scenes and lines added, for no reason other than for Bolshevik anti-Western reasons.. This movie was worth every one of my hard earned dollars I spent on it. I do not have cable because of what is on it to me is so sophomoric,and in my opinion is damaging to family and Western Cilvilization. I want to thank Tom Selleck for telling a story that entertained, and also caused one to ponder lifes serious side too, yet had some laughs and smiles, that is so needed in these times. No I am not connected to this movie or the movie business in any way, these are my honest opinions, but if your like me and only buy a very few movies in year, and hate being ripped off, here is a DVD movie you will feel good about and reflective about the story too, this one is worth the purchase. Tom Selleck also did this movie out his own pocket too, from what I read. He is a good man.. Enjoy this one friends..
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Summary: Cowboys Betrayed Government With Their Independence
Review: The cowboys portrayed in this Tom Selleck western performed a disservice for all of the people today who think government assistance is the only means of improving your life. Why, they didn't appear to need the government at all. This, in the thinking of about half of contemporary Americans, is highly unpatriotic. These cowboys simply endured terrible working conditions, being outdoors in all weathers, without whining; an episode during the early part of the film shows Walsh (Selleck) driving through a terrible winter storm, all on his own, giving no thought whatever to this hazardous workplace situation. The movie opens with numerous cowboys unemployed due to modernization and corporate expansion into the cattle industry. They foolishly continued traveling about, in search of work, rather than appealing to the government for welfare assistance -- the implication being they were rather independent sorts given to earning their subsistence rather than begging or demanding it from the state. These unfortunate men obviously had no labor union representation whatever, and could be fired/hired based on the judgment of employers. This in UnAmerican, as about half of us today (per a survey conducted November 2000) believe that a worker's need for his paycheck has priority over his employer's ability to provide it, since all employers are evil and rich. These cowboys were subject to egregious workplace harassment, as when they drove a herd to a railhead only to see it spooked by an insensitive, racist engineer who considered it "fun" to blow the whistle and spook the herd. The cowboys, rather than squealing to Human Resources or filing charges with the National Labor Relations Board, then horribly vandalized the train. Because the train was owned by a large greedy corporation, that really wasn't a problem -- but the action constituted reverse harassment against the train personnel who had participated in the hostile whistle prank, as they felt scared and threatened in this hostile working environment. There was no sort of Federal Lunch Program, and the cowboys were forced to eat food cooked in obviously unregulated circumstances, vulnerable to the cook's sabotage. (The dinner incident constituted additional harassment, but the cowboys again did not file any sort of complaint.) The big evil greedy cattle companies provided no sort of retirement programs. It was required, after your trade usefulness had expired, for you to ride your horse over a cliff. Finally, these American cowboys didn't appear to understand the need for lawyers, as they simply took the law into their own hands and did what they thought was correct (but their thinking obviously was flawed -- see the seven paragraphs above). They probably would have just shot a lawyer, had any lawyer on Earth possessed sufficient merit to be in the presence of men like this.
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Summary: If ya liked it...
Review: Then you must watch the original 1970 Movie staring Lee Marvin and Jack Palance. I am a big Selleck fan..and love almost all of his Westerns. An old timer told me that the original was his favorite Western of all time....and he was a bit miffed that Selleck had gone and remade it. We agreed to swap versions. And I must say I do like the old version. Sellecks was very true to the first one..and the theme and atmosphere come across in both. I am awaiting the review from the other end..but I am more certain he will find it does justice to a great story.
The Lee Marvin Monte is only available in tape...at least I have not seen it released in DVD yet.
Jim Ed
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Summary: More of a portrait, less of a traditional movie
Review: 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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Summary: Gotta love this movie!!!
Review: This is one of the best movies I've seen, can't help but say
that Lonsome Dove is my favorite but right after that is Monte Walsh!!! It is a movie I can watch over and over again. I recommend this movie to everyone!! A++
Rating:
Summary: Who said the Western is dead?
Review: This movie has just premiered on cable TV in the UK, and I've no hesitation in rating it as one of the best westerns I've ever seen: beautifully shot, scripted and acted, and much less pessimistic than the original Lee Marvin vehicle. Yet again, Simon Wincer proves himself a western director in the tradition of John Ford, and in Tom Selleck he has found a leading man to surpass even John Wayne. I've just advance-ordered my DVD copy, and I can't wait!
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Summary: Western with great Depth
Review: This remake of the 1970 movie of the same name starring Tom Selleck is not immediately what you are likely to expect, after about 15 mins into the picture. Set at the turn of the 19th century, Selleck plays the title role as a true cowboy, slowly realising that he is rapidly becoming an anachronism, to the ever evolving world around him. Unhappy with what he sees more and more, he comes to take a stand against the faceless Eastern companies threatening the very fabric of his World, in heroic, but not typical fashion, and this essentially sets up our story. Hardly action packed, and more than a few dry screen moments mean however, that Selleck really has to work hard to maintain the flow of the story, but he does so with a depth of character and credibility that is accomplished to say the least. This is probably not a movie you will sit around and talk about for hours, and will ceratinly be more popular with dedictaed fans of the genre, rather than a more mainstream audience. All that aside, this is a good movie, with some great acting. that unfortunately that just misses the mark.
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