Sadly Over-hyped

Overrated and overhyped

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Very good western with a very strong core cast (Selleck, Rossellini, Carradine x2), and an equally good supporting cast. Strong story about the "last cowboy" and his escapades at the turn of the century.It would be nice to see Selleck and Rossellini together in another western with more screen time together. They collaborate together marvelously. Keith Carradine and Selleck are also a good combination. Director Wincer crafts a stylish show while gracefully displaying the final curtain call for this last cowboy. Not sure where this movie was shot, but the scenery was magnificent!Keep the Selleck westerns coming!

The scenery was beautiful, but I kept waiting for the action, as in Crossfire Trail. Things seemed to plod along, with a realistic setting and beautiful country throughout. This movie is rated a lot higher than Crossfire Trail here at IMDb, but I would reverse the ratings and, for a TV movie, rate Monte Walsh at a 5.

Best known for the novel "Shane," Jack Schaefer also wrote the novel "Monte Walsh," a depiction of the life of the itinerant cowhand. There's not a lot of plot, but a hugely detailed and wonderfully described slice of life, tough, tender, and comedic. The first film of "Monte Walsh" was a great little picture, with a nice uncharacteristic role for Jack Palance as Monte's pal Chet. But this TV remake may in fact be a better film. Tom Selleck is just grand as Monte--getting a bit old for bronco-busting, but still full of piss-and-vinegar. And Keith Carradine is swell as Chet, the cowboy who gives it all up to marry the hardware widow. Everything about this film is done extremely well. The costumes are superb--colorful and mythic while at the same time obviously useful and well-used work clothes. This is not a clean-hat Western, one of my pet peeves. The music is really touching and classic and romantic, and the cinematography is, to coin a cliche', stunning. All the performances are really quite good, and the movie left me with the feeling that I'd really spent a few months with a bunch of cowhands. What plot there is is realistic and uncontrived, and is ultimately moving. But "Monte Walsh" really earns its spurs by showing a 21st century audience how wonderful and horrible life on the 19th century range could be.

Better than a lot of westerns, but still there's really nothing there.I suppose the irony is that this "vanishing way of life" was really only around for about sixty years (ca 1850-1910). It really wasn't that well known east of Missouri outside the popular press, and isn't now outside the movies.If the western epitomizes the American experience, that's nice, but there have probably been more movie cowboys than there ever were working cowboys. Much more story than practicality. So, if the above is true, the end of the cowboy way of life is... unlamented, unheralded, and probably unnoticed except for a few.