Tommy Lee Jones brought such a presence and subtle likeness, charm and depth to the tough hard character of Call. Voight's hard approach just comes across bland, monotone and dead behind the eyes.
shareI like both actors but Voight just ain't the actor for a western.
shareI have to agree completely. I think they should have left it alone. I hate sequels that aren't written by the original writer anyway, but to replace the actors is disappointing to say the least. After watching Lonesome Dove last night and again today, Return to Lonesome Dove is a poor follow-up. The acting was too good in the original, and Tommy Lee is impossible to beat. My big question is what happened to Lorie!?! I won't continue watching now.
shareVoight is not Tommy Lee Jones, but he did a competent job, and it seemed he got better as the movie went on. If you didn't watch the rest of it you missed out on a great story.
shareThe switching of the actors made a huge difference in the characters. Also, it was a story not approved by the original author. It was a very poor second.
shareI know it wasn't approved by McMurtry. I know that turns some people off, it did me at first. But the way I look at it a good story is a good story, and a great western is a great western. And if you look past that it actually is good IMHO. I don't know if you read McMurty's follow ups, Streets of Laredo, Dead Man's Walk, and Comanche Moon, but none of them were up to the original either. Especially not Streets of Laredo. McMurtry had some problems after writing Lonesome Dove and was never the same, he even wrote Streets of Laredo pissed off over RTLD and allegedly killed Newt off just to make it impossible. If you don't like it you don't like it, I'm just saying if you choose not to watch all of it just because of Voight and because it was disliked by McMurtry, you are missing out.
shareVoigt was a huge disappointment after Tommy Lee and I did not care for Hershey either. They are both okay on their own, but not to follow the actors in Lonesome Dove. I did end up watching Return later and I just did not care for it. It was a poor second and the story was either weak or the actors made it weak. I rarely like a sequel of any kind. Nothing ever matches the original. If you want to see an excellent story not to be equaled, get your hands on a copy of the series "Centennial."
shareOkay, that's cool. I liked it myself, but I understand not everyone did. Barbara Hershey was never a problem for me because I wasn't crazy about Anjelica Houston in the role anyway. Barbara Hershey was actually more how I pictured the Clara of the novel, she even looks more like the Clara from the prequels. As for Jon Voight, like I said do agree he wasn't Tommy Lee Jones, but he wasn't bad either, especially when you consider he was the first choice for Call in the original.
shareI am not a big Anjelica Houston fan anyway, but she had a strong presence in the film, which Hershey did not, in my opinion. If Hershey had been in the original I might have liked her better. I didn't read the novels, so it may have changed my opinion. I just didn't find her presence strong enough. I actually like Jon Voight okay, but after Tommy Lee it was a big step down. In Lonesome Dove, I hung on every word and found it and the characters totally endearing, but the sequel just did not have the same feel to it. I am glad you enjoyed it though, as many others did too.
shareThe relationship between Call and Gus made the first one, the second one had no real chance without Robert Duvall
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