Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove (Re-mastered) [2008]

RRP £19.99 Lowest New Price £10.91

Suitable for 15 years and over Acorn Media Release date: Monday 14th of April 2008 Starring: Danny Glover, Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Duvall, Anjelica Huston, Diane Lane, Director(s): Format: Subtitled, Widescreen, PAL, Region code: 2 Running time: 360 minutes Language: English (Unknown)

RRP: £19.99
A 5-star Western on a 3-star transfer
Review date: 2008-11-01 Rating: 6 out of 10

Conventional wisdom had it that the Western was dead when after years of false starts, Lonesome Dove finally made it to the screen. Starting life as a 1971 screenplay for John Wayne, James Stewart and Henry Fonda before becoming a best-selling Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, it was even briefly mooted as a possible vehicle for Redford and Newman as the two former Texas Rangers who go on one last cattle drive, but was deemed too risky for the big screen. The end result was certainly worth the long wait, earning huge ratings and a well-deserved reputation as one of the finest television Westerns ever made.

True, the first episode is a bit slow as the characters mull over the wisdom of a cattle drive at their time of life, but the time spent getting to know the large ensemble pays off: by the time they leave the dead-end town of Lonesome Dove we know enough about them to genuinely care about their fate over the long and dangerous journey, giving us a Western that's not only thrilling but often genuinely touching. It's a beautifully produced saga, with fine performances from most of the cast - particularly Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones - strikingly directed, often breathtakingly shot and boasting one of Basil Poledouris' most beautiful scores.

So why only three stars? Well, unfortunately though the original DVD release needed remastering, this new edition rather botches the job. The picture quality is better, but unforgiveably the image has been cropped from its original fullframe to widescreen, making a travesty of the original framing and often losing detail in several scenes. So, for the time being at least, the choice is between a poor older edition in the right ratio or a clearer image but less of it on this new edition. A real crying shame...