Monty Walsh movie

[Pitchy]

I loved the latest version of the movie but i had no idea there was a earlier one with Lee Marvin.
Ordered it yesterday, opinions on the first one?

[gak]

I'm not familiar with the Lee Marvin version, but I was just thinking we're overdue for another Tom Sellek western, which he has not discounted in interviews since he really likes the genre.

[Blaine]

I'm not familiar with the Lee Marvin version, but I was just thinking we're overdue for another Tom Sellek western, which he has not discounted in interviews since he really likes the genre.

I can see it now: Monte Walsh Rides Fence

[DixieBoy]

Pitchy - I've seen them both. The original film with Lee Marvin is pretty good. And - to my great enjoyment - so is the remake with Tom Selleck. I liked the Tom Selleck version in a big way. So much that I bought the DVD several years ago, and I don't go buying a DVD of every movie I've liked.

When I first saw the newer version with Selleck I did not even know about the original film with Lee Marvin. Caught that on one of the old movie channels a while back and it's really good too. When I went back and watched the recent Selleck version after seeing the original I was thankful that they didn't ruin the story like they do with so many remakes. They respected a great story and didn't try to make a different story out of it. If you like one, chances are you'll like the other too. - DixieBoy

[DixieBoy]

Blaine - That "riding fence" business was first made clear to me in Monte Walsh, how it was the "end of the line" for an old cowboy who couldn't do much else anymore, because of being older.

You know, there's a lot that's sad in the story Monte Walsh. The "riding fence" stuff, and the fellow who commits suicide because it's come to that. Then there's the unfulfilled love business - and realizing that things could have been done better - but it's too late when that is realized. So, why is a movie that has some real downer (even if it's realistic and deals with stuff that a lot of us have) stuff in it so popular ?

I think Monte Walsh is popular not just because of the melancholy stuff, it also talks about the cowboy code, and a lot of good stuff too. Like "riding for the brand," and a man's word being the most important thing he has. And even though times have gotten tough for the small ranchers with all of the big money eastern types moving in, and their lack of caring about the people who've worked the range their whole lives, you still have the smaller ranch owners who've come to know and care about the guys who've worked their ranches for so long. And they try to take care of those guys as best they can. There's a lot of good that's put forward in the story, so that it's not just a big "oh, woe is me" pity party. The man Monte Walsh tries to do the best he can even though he might wish he'd done some things different. Heck, that is a lot of us. Maybe that's it after all. - DixieBoy

[Pitchy]

He stood up for what was right and what he believed, kinda like staying obedient to God.
The smile he had while riding off at the end of the movie shows he felt he accomplished that.
Great movie IMO and look forward to seeing the other one.

[Booger Bill]

I really related with that movie in a strange way. I went through a bad divorice and to have visitation with my daughter got a real english nanney-housekeeper live in. It was a "arrangment" to benifit us both. I picked up all household bills, she worked as a manager for a big and tall store for her personnal money. Tom and his brother bob owned the buiding and she knew them.
The woman in the movie was named "Martine". That was my nanneys name too! Martine got cancer and died on me at home. We were together for about 14 years. After she died tom starred in the movie. At the time I assumed he named her character after martine. Then I read the movie was a remake. Here is a picture of tom, bob, and the store chain owner and wife. Martine WAS at the far right but it seems she was taken out of the picture in the intrest of a peacefull home life with my new wife!

[Pitchy]

Call me dumb and slow but who are the people in the picture, ya lost me on this story.

[Booger Bill]

Bob and tom sellick, the store owner and his wife. You know, tom the movie actor thats playing in blue bloods and was monty walsh.
Bob is toms brother and ran their real estate business. Bob is even taller than tom.

[Rusty]

I remember seeing the version with Lee Marvin years ago in the movie theater. The best part that I remembered from the original that I was waiting for in the remake was when the cook got revenge for the crew giving him a bath. They did it just as well. I have a copy of the new one, I should get the other one too. They're both worth the money IMHO.

[Pitchy]

Bob and tom sellick, the store owner and his wife. You know, tom the movie actor thats playing in blue bloods and was monty walsh.
Bob is toms brother and ran their real estate business. Bob is even taller than tom.

Ok thanks, i`m a little slow comprehending things sometimes.
Very cool

Rusty, i`ve watched the latest one at least five times since i got it.
I`d like to be living somewhere like that and living that way.

[Booger Bill]

Pitchy, I always pictured you liveing like that! You dont?
I once seen a cartoon. This guy was watching the honney mooners on tv. He is telling his wife, "Can you imagine a couple liveing in a place like that?" The cartoon showed him in his apartment that looked exactly like ralphs on tv!

[Pitchy]

Pitchy, I always pictured you liveing like that! You dont?
I once seen a cartoon. This guy was watching the honney mooners on tv. He is telling his wife, "Can you imagine a couple liveing in a place like that?" The cartoon showed him in his apartment that looked exactly like ralphs on tv!

If ya wear spurs or an outfit around here they`ed laugh at ya
My dream is a small log house on the side of the foot hills out west.
A place where the cowboy look is normal, i`d sell everything including the Harley to make that happen.

[Booger Bill]

Well, come here to cedar city utah. We can both go sit on the benchs in walmart and you might see cowboys with spurs, sheepherders, a ton of squatty indians and always a few poligamists! I sit there 2 or 3 times a week while theresa cruise`s the aisles. We have a close friend that owns market grill, the resturant by the cattle sales yard. Every thursday is auction day. The real things show up for that! Cowboys and indians from several states around. They come out of nowhere!

[Booger Bill]

Almost forgot your cabin pitchy!

[Booger Bill]

From here to the end of the trail. Its all nearby. My wife Theresa took these pictures and all I show.

[Cast Bullet Hunter]

The name of the "Grass Widow", Martine, was selected by the author, Jack Schaefer, in the original book "Monte Walsh". I read that several years before the Lee Marvin original film was made. Sometime in the 1960s.

Who was Lawrence Gifford?

[Pitchy]

Bill i might just take ya up on that invitation someday.

[Shasta]

Monte Walsh is one of my favorite movies. Both the Lee Marvin original and the Tom Selleck re-make are first class entertainment, with the Selleck version being closer to the original book's storyline.

Now if you really want some good listening, get the original Monte Walsh book on tape, published in 1988. I got mine off ebay some years ago. It is a two-volume set, the first volume contains seven cassettes and the second has eight. That's right, there are fifteen cassettes, and each is an hour and a half long! It's a very long story that covers the whole life of Monte Walsh from cradle to grave. The movies do a good job of hitting the highlights, but if you want the whole story, get the book, or book on tape.




SHASTA

[Rusty]

Thank you Shasta, I never thought about the book. I'll be looking at my local library.

[DixieBoy]

Not to steer this great Monte Walsh thread off the path, but this is some absolutely beautiful country there Bill. Wow ! - DixieBoy

[Booger Bill]

Dixieboy, thanks. We live at cedar city in SW utah. Within a hours drive is Bryce canyon, cedar breaks and zion national parks. We live at 6,000 ft elevation and tne mountains get 10,000 ft a few miles away so its cool and we get weather. There are a lot of trails to ride and its almost all BLM land when you get out of town. People come to this area to sightsee and vacation from the other side of the world. Also a hour south is hot desert. Mesquite nevada is about a hour and half away for playing and vegas less than 3 hour drive. Rideing the trails on a atv is our thing.
Check out this page of pictures my wife took on our last ride a week or two ago. We belong to a club and go with them sometimes. Those pictures are like 15 to 20 miles from us.
http://funandfitlife.net/past-ride-phot ... -club.html

[BigSky56]

I prefer the original with Lee & Jack. Tom has some fine movies I believe his best was the Sacketts. danny

[JimT]

I saw the original movie with Lee Marvin many years ago. It made me happy to see the remake was so well done.

In my opinion though, the bucking scene with Lee Marvin was better than Tom Selleck's and his was GOOD!

It could be that I think that because Marvin's was the first one I saw. Or else because I am an opinionated old fanny burp.

I do recommend everyone get the book. It takes Monty's life from youth to the end. If you can read of his love affair with his horses or finish it dry-eyed you're a tougher man than I am.

[DixieBoy]

JimT - Thanks for the head's up about the book. I'm going to look for it.

Along the lines of affection for horses, there is a passage in the biography of Buffalo Bill Cody, the one that his sister wrote, that I used to read to my students. This is when we'd be talking about the end of the Old West days. I knew that most of my students - if they'd ever heard of Buffalo Bill at all - had probably heard a bunch of nonsense propaganda about him being a ruthless killer of buffalo, in a not so subtle attempt to demean him.

Anyway, there is a passage in there in which Bill's sister quotes Bill's eulogy for his beloved horse, Charlie. Charlie had become sick while the whole troupe of Bill's "Congress of Rough Riders" was heading to Europe to tour there. Charlie died, and it broke everyone up. They held a service on deck, and Bill delivered a eulogy for his beloved horse that many humans would be proud to hear at their own funeral service. I had trouble not crying while reading it, and I'd read it perhaps two dozen times to students. The eulogy is the words of a man who clearly felt that he had lost a dear and close friend. Strong stuff.

If anyone wants, I'll look for the book and find it, then post it here. It is truly touching. - DixieBoy

[JimT]

Thanks DixieBoy .. I for one would love to read it.

I have had a couple horses over the years that were good friends. They understood me, knew my moods, loved to hunt and climb the mountains. Those days are long gone and so are the horses ... but I still miss them and have a place in my heart for them.

[DixieBoy]

JimT - Could not find my copy of the book in all my clutter but I did find the complete eulogy that Buffalo Bill Cody spoke, online. I say "complete" because I noticed a version that I recognized as being "abbreviated" on a couple sites. You know, I try not to be too picky, but there are a couple things that should never be "abbreviated" and a eulogy is one of them. Even if it is for a horse. I first saw this in Bill's sister biography of her brother, and it is complete.

The setting is on the return trip from England (I was wrong with my memory of this in my earlier post). The Congress of Rough Riders was returning home to America when Bill's favorite and beloved horse, Charlie, sickened and then quickly died. Bill contemplated bringing Charlie home and burying him along the North Platte, but decided to bury Charlie at sea. Charlie was wrapped in canvas and covered in the American flag.

"Members of the show assembled on the deck. Standing alone, with uncovered head, Bill stood alone next to the dead horse and delivered the eulogy:

"Old fellow, your journeys are over. Here in the ocean you must rest. Would that I could take you back and lay you down beneath the willows of that prairie you and I have loved so well and roamed so freely; but it cannot be. How often at break of day, the glorious sun rising on the horizon has found us far from human habitation ! Yet, obedient to my call, gladly you bore your burden on, little heeding what the day might bring, so that you and I but shared its sorrows and pleasures alike. You have never failed me. Ah, Charlie, old fellow, I have had many friends, but few of whom I could say that. Rest entombed in the deep bosom of the ocean ! I will never forget you. I loved you as you loved me, my dear old Charlie. Men tell me you have no soul but if there be a heaven, and scouts can enter there, I will wait at the gate for you, old friend."

And Charlie was committed to the deep.

I'll tell you what. If that doesn't get you, nothing will. Hope you enjoyed this Jim. It did me good to find it again. - DixieBoy

[JimT]

Excellent! Thank you.

[Pitchy]

Ah, the little things about love one learns in this cruel world that keep your faith alive.
Good story bro`s.

[Griff]

Thanx, Dixieboy.

[Pitchy]

I found the book and just ordered it.

[bdhold]

I would like to see Tom Selleck make another big budget cinema western.
As much as I like his TV westerns, Quigley has a better screenplay and notably better production quality.

[Booger Bill]

Not many can speak that well (cant spell elenquity) nowdays! BB had style!

[Charles]

I have watched both versions of the story several times each and would hate to try and pick between them. They were both great films about the dying of the Cowboy life. Elmer Kelton set some of this books in this transition period in the American west. Kelton is by far my favorite American writer. His stories and characters have the ring of truth about them, very much like the older Texas ranchers, I knew as a child.

Lee Marvin and Jack Palance did a great job, so did Tom and his cast. It is a classic story any way it is served up.

[Rusty]

Thank you Dixieboy. That was touching and from the heart.

I stopped at the local library today and brought home the MONTE WALSH book.

[Pitchy]

Rusty which book did you buy, i ordered the one by Jack Schaefer.
Are some better than others?

[DixieBoy]

I hope I didn't bring any confusion into this thread by bringing up Buffalo Bill when the original topic was Monte Walsh. That's a great story in a great book, that made for two great movies.

As for Buffalo Bill, there are a slew of books written about him. His own autobiography is good, but I'd read it, and chanced upon a biography written about him by his adoring sister. That is the book which contains Bill's eulogy for his horse Charlie that I quoted above. - DixieBoy

[Barcelona Rick]

Pitchy they were both great movies but the bucking scene from the first movie is the best ever filmed IMHO.....

rick

[J35]

I hope I didn't bring any confusion into this thread by bringing up Buffalo Bill when the original topic was Monte Walsh. That's a great story in a great book, that made for two great movies.

As for Buffalo Bill, there are a slew of books written about him. His own autobiography is good, but I'd read it, and chanced upon a biography written about him by his adoring sister. That is the book which contains Bill's eulogy for his horse Charlie that I quoted above. - DixieBoy

You would probably like--- Log of a Cowboy By Andy Adams you can read or listen to it online at Librivox it is read By Richard Kilmer who has the voice and is good at it.

Also A short story by Andy Adams called The Poker Steer.

Have fun--- J

[J35]

I have never cared for any of the Westerns with Tom Selleck even Quigly.

He sure look's the part but when he sits a horse or opens his mouth its a failure for me.

IMO its a mistake to remake the old movies with today's actors they should make new movies with new actors.

Have fun --J

[Lassiter]

Well, I hope you guys are happy............I had to order the book!! I don't think I've ever seen a movie that was as good as the book it was taken from and I liked both versions of Monty Walsh and True Grit.

[JerryB]

It's been along time time since I've seen the first one, I'll see if I ca find it, both are very real and easy to watch.

Dixieboy thanks for that, any old cowboy that has messed with horses will know that feeling.

[DixieBoy]

335nut - I've got The Log of a Cowboy by Andy Adams, and you're right, it's great.

There's another one I came across a few months back called The Trampling Herd, by Paul Wellman.
It's a great narrative history of the cattle industry with just incredible stories spliced all through the book. - DixieBoy