BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Scott LeBrun Forget "Cat Ballou". THIS is the performance that should have netted Lee Marvin a Best Actor Oscar. He's simply wonderful as the title character, part of a romanticized Old West that can see that times are changing. There's not as much need for veteran cowboys like him and his good friend Chet Rollins (Jack Palance), so they have a hard time finding work. Finally latching onto some gainful employment with rancher Cal Brennan (Jim Davis), he finally feels ready to settle down with Martine Bernard (a radiant Jeanne Moreau), the love of his life. But making the acquaintance of short tempered Shorty Austin (Mitchell Ryan) will prove to be quite fateful indeed."Monte Walsh" is scripted by Lukas Heller and David Zelag Goodman, based on the novel by Jack Schaefer of "Shane" fame. It marked the directorial debut for noted cinematographer William A. Fraker, who handles the material with incredible sensitivity and poignancy. It's an often beautiful, lyrical film, if rather manipulative at times. It's quite bittersweet, so viewers should be prepared for some very sad moments. Still, it's got so much heart, and so much humor, that it just pulls you in and keeps you watching. It looks glorious, with production design by Albert Brenner and cinematography by David M. Walsh that is just perfect. The music by John Barry is lush and romantic.The film also shows us just how great Jack Palance can be. Far too often during his career he was locked into villain roles due to his looks, but he's just a joy, in one of his rare good guy roles. He and Marvin make for very believable friends, the lovely Moreau has much appeal, and Ryan (who's clearly playing younger than he actually was at the time) is a vivid antagonist. Ryan even gets an official "introducing" credit. And they're supported by many of the cream of the crop of American character actors: G.D. Spradlin, Michael Conrad, Bo Hopkins, John McLiam, Matt Clark, Billy Green Bush, Eric Christmas, Charles Tyner, Jack Colvin, and Richard Farnsworth.Well paced, with some good action, and violence that is effective without being particularly gory, "Monte Walsh" rates as a must see for fans of the cast and the Western genre.Filmed again in 2003, with Tom Selleck in the lead.Eight out of 10.

MartinHafer "Monte Walsh" is a very slow, deliberate and meandering sort of film. It's really quite lovely but also a bit thin when it comes to plot.The film is set in the waning days of the old west. Jobs for cowhands are drying up and old timers like Monte (Lee Marvin) and his friend, Chet (Jack Palance) are living anachronisms. During the course of the film, not only is their way of life dying but all sorts of rotten things happen to the folks Monte loves and as they drop like flies, he's pretty much all alone.To heighten the effect of loneliness, the film has excellent melancholy music and is deliberately slow and brooding. It works but might annoy some viewers who want a lot of action. Well, until near the end there ain't any....so deal with it! Worth seeing despite being a bit depressing and slow.

jmillerdp (Thematic SPOILERS)This is half of a great movie. The great half is the first, where we meet cowboys dealing with a time when their world is coming to an end. Corporations are taking over, and the work of the cowboy is needed less and less.The second half is where things go awry. The movie goes into formula mode. The greatness of the first half, with its quiet moments of reflection, and views of life on the range, go away. In their place is murder, heartbreak and revenge. I was very disappointed in the way the film went.Often-cinematographer William Fraker takes the Director's Chair here and does admirably. He is supported by David Walsh behind the camera. John Barry provides an excellent score. He would later earn an Oscar with "Dances with Wolves," and fans of that score can get more of Barry's work in the Western genre here. Barry strays into his James Bond score work occasionally here, which is distracting.The issue in this film is with the origin material. Jack Shaefer, who wrote the novel, also wrote "Shane." Maybe he wasn't ready to go without overt drama to make his point. That's too bad.****** (6 Out of 10 Stars)

Robert J. Maxwell It begins as a comedy about committed cow punchers then turns dramatic as the old way of life begins to dry up and the cowboys have to adapt to changing circumstances. Nothing much new there. But in fact it has its innovative moments despite its overall derivative tone.It owes a lot to the success of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," an enormous success released the year before. "Butch" was about the end of the Old West's outlaw culture, while this is about cattle drives. "Butch" had a silly pop tune, "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head." This one has Mama Cass singing, "The good times are coming. They're coming real soon. And I'm not just pitching pennies at the moon." You will be forgiven for noting a family resemblance.Lee Marvin is decked out in the semi-army campaign hat he and his directors seemed to favor at the time -- "The Professionals", for instance. And Marvin gets one weird arrangement of facial hair after another, each making him look more, well, monumental than the one before. That notion may have come from the director, William Fraker, who was Director of Photography on Marvin's earlier "Paint Your Wagon," where he also sported highly sculpted mutton chops.Fraker's photography was usually quite good, as it was, for instance, in "Bullet." His direction isn't bad either. Having Marvin as the star helps enormously. He was at the top of his game in 1970. He seemed to be sober throughout. Ten years earlier, in a Western episode of "The Twilight Zone," he showed up drunk, crashed his horse backwards through a store window and fell off. (He apologized later.) He crashes a bucking horse through a store window here too, but this time it's the horse's idea. And what a bucking horse it is. He takes Marvin on a roller coaster tour of a Western town at night and demolishes half of it. In fact, there is some splendid horseback riding on evidence throughout the film -- and I say this from a position of complete ignorance about what constitutes splendid horseback riding.As I said, it becomes dramatic after the scenes of drunkenness and diarrhea. Marvin's girl friend, Jeanne Moreau, passes away. One of his friends drops out of cowboyhood and becomes the proprietor of the despised hardware store. Another goes bad, begins robbing banks, and must be killed reluctantly in a final shoot out. The conflict takes place in a cattle yard but the two adversaries don't run around shooting wildly at one another. If a bullet plunks into the planks an inch from Marvin's head, he doesn't even duck. He keeps walking slowly along. And his adversary doesn't challenge him long before putting up his pistol and allowing himself to be shot by Marvin, as a kind of penance. Heavy duty penance. There's a brief shot of Marvin returning to a town where he's had some raucous good times with old friends. He opens the door to the saloon. The large hall is as empty of people as it is of pity. After a long pause, Marvin slowly closes the door and walks away. I wonder if it requires a certain age, a certain accumulation of experience, to appreciate the melancholy of this scene. Anybody familiar with Edward Arlington Robinson's poem, "Mr. Flood's Party"?The point of view -- the fading of the traditional cowboy way of life -- combines sociology and character analysis. Things are changing. Superorganic things over which no individual has control. You can't stop economic evolution anymore than you can stop the stifle the syrinxes of all those who are Tweeting and Chirping and Cawing. Yet adaptation takes different forms. Jack Palance can quit and manage a store. Mitch Ryan quits and robs banks. Lee Marvin winds up wandering alone and half-mad through the mesquite, telling long, rambling tales to a horse that seems to have heard them all before. "There was not much that was ahead of him, And there was nothing in the town below -- Where strangers would have shut the many doors That many friends had opened long ago."