''Monte Walsh'' is a 1970 American

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film directed by cinematographer William A. Fraker (his directorial debut) starring

Lee Marvin Lee Marvin (born Lamont Waltman Marvin Jr.; February 19, 1924August 29, 1987) was an American film and television actor. Known for his bass voice and premature white hair, he is best remembered for playing hardboiled "tough guy" characters. Alt ...

Jeanne Moreau Jeanne Moreau (; 23 January 1928 – 31 July 2017) was a French actress, singer, screenwriter, director, and socialite. She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. M ...

and

Jack Palance Jack Palance ( ; born Volodymyr Palahniuk ( uk, Володимир Палагню́к); February 18, 1919 – November 10, 2006) was an American actor known for playing tough guys and villains. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, all fo ...

. The name "Monte Walsh" is taken from the title of a 1963 western novel by Jack Schaefer, but the film has little to do with the plot of Schaefer's book. The film was set in Harmony, Arizona. The story has elements of a

tragedy Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...

. The song played over the opening credits is "The Good Times Are Comin' " by

Mama Cass Mama(s) or Mamma or Momma may refer to: Roles *Mother, a female parent * Mama-san, in Japan and East Asia, a woman in a position of authority *Mamas, a name for female associates of the Hells Angels Places * Mama, Russia, an urban-type settlemen ...

, with music and lyrics by John Barry and

Hal David Harold Lane David (May 25, 1921 – September 1, 2012) was an American lyricist. He grew up in New York City. He was best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach and his association with Dionne Warwick. Early life David ...

Plot

Monte Walsh is an older

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaqu ...

facing the final days of the

Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

era. He and his friend Chet Rollins, another longtime cowhand, work on cattle ranches, preferring to do "nothing that can't be done from a horse". Their lives are divided between months on the range and the occasional trip into town. Camaraderie and competition with the other cowboys fill their days. When they find out that the Cross Bar ranch that they had worked "was wiped out during the last winter", they take work at the Slash Y ranch where their old boss Cal Brennan is the "range manager". At the Slash Y, they meet an old friend, Shorty Austin, another cowhand and bronco buster. Monte has a long-term relationship with an old flame,

prostitute Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...

and saloon girl Martine Bernard, who suffers from tuberculosis. Chet has fallen in love with Mary Eagle, a widow who owns a hardware store. As

barbed wire A close-up view of a barbed wire Roll of modern agricultural barbed wire Barbed wire, also known as barb wire, is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strands. Its primary use is ...

and

railroads Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

steadily eliminate the need for the cowboy. Monte and his friends are left with fewer and fewer options. The Slash Y isn't doing too well and Shorty is let go. As there is no other work available, he gets involved in rustling and killing, gunning down a local lawman. At this point, Monte and Chet find that their lives on the range are inexorably redirected. Chet marries Mary and will go to work in the hardware store. He tells Monte that their old way of life is simply disappearing and that, "Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever". Caught up in the spirit of the moment, Monte rides to visit Martine and asks her to marry him, and she accepts. Monte goes on a drinking binge and rides an unbroken bucking horse that came from the Slash Y ranch through town, causing considerable damage, smashing through a plate glass window of a "china shop" and shattering the entire store's stock. A wild west roundup show owner, Colonel Wilson, sees him ride the bronco to a halt and offers him a job to perform as "Texas Jack Butler star cowboy, bronco buster and all-around wild man of the west". Monte considers the offer which includes a significant weekly salary and all expenses paid, but decides the work is too degrading and refuses. He tells Colonel Wilson, "I ain't spitting on my whole life". Time goes on, Shorty being desperate, robs Chet's hardware store. He shoots and kills Chet. At Chet's funeral, Cal tells Monte that The Slash Y Ranch has closed leaving Monte out of work. Monte goes after Shorty "to do the law's work". While searching for Shorty, Monte finds out that Martine is "in a bad way". He goes to see her, but he arrives too late. she has died. Monte is mourning at Martine's death bed when Shorty calls him out for a showdown. Monte pursues Shorty through a slaughterhouse. Shorty shoots Monte in the arm. Monte manages to slip around and confront Shorty. Shorty holsters his pistol, and Monte shoots the unarmed Shorty. As Shorty dies, Monte says to him, or maybe to himself as Shorty might already be dead, "I rode down the grey... you had to sit him high." Monte is on his own. The theme of the last scene is a repeat of the opening scene where Monte sees a wolf and prepares to shoot it. While aiming, he is talking to his horse (in the opening scene he was talking to Chet) and segues into the same story he told in scene one about a man, Big Joe Abernathy, who used to wrestle wolves. He doesn't shoot the wolf. He rides off into the "New West".

Cast

as Monte Walsh *

as Martine Bernard *

as Chet Rollins *

Mitchell Ryan Mitchell Ryan (January 11, 1934 – March 4, 2022) was an American film, television, and stage actor, who in his six decades of television is known for playing Burke Devlin in the 1960s gothic soap opera ''Dark Shadows'', and later for his co- ...

as "Shorty" Austin * Jim Davis as Cal Brennan * G.D. Spradlin as Hal Henderson * John Hudkins as Sonny Jacobs (as John "Bear" Hudkins) * Raymond Guth as "Sunfish" Perkins (as Ray Guth) * John McKee as Petey Williams * Michael Conrad as Dally Johnson * Tom Heaton as "Sugar" Wyman *

Ted Gehring Theodore Edwin Gehring Jr. (April 6, 1929 – September 28, 2000) was an American film and television actor. He is known for playing the recurring role as "Charlie" on 16 episodes of the American sitcom television series ''Alice''. Life and car ...

as "Skimpy" Eagans *

Bo Hopkins William Mauldin "Bo" Hopkins (February 2, 1938 – May 28, 2022) Issucover/ref> was an American actor. He was known for playing supporting roles in a number of major studio films between 1969 and 1979, and appeared in many television shows and ...

as Joe "Jumpin' Joe" Joslin * John McLiam as Joe "Fightin' Joe" Hooker *

Allyn Ann McLerie Allyn Ann McLerie (December 1, 1926 – May 21, 2018) was a Canadian-born American actress, singer and dancer who worked with many of Golden Age musical theatre's major choreographers, including George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, and Jerome Robb ...

as Mary Eagle *

Matt Clark Matthew Clark is a United Kingdom-based drinks distributor. Matthew or Matt Clark may also refer to: *Mat Clark (born 1990), Canadian ice hockey defenceman *Matt Clark (actor) (born 1936), American actor and director *Matt Clark (baseball) (born 19 ...

as Rufus Brady *

Charles Tyner Charles Tyner (June 8, 1923 – November 8, 2017) was an American film, television and stage character actor best known, principally, for his performances in the films ''Harold and Maude'' (1971), ''Emperor of the North Pole'' (1973), '' The Longe ...

as Doctor * Jack Colvin as Card Cheat

Reception

Most reviews of the film were positive, and the western has scored an 88% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

. A positive notice came from critic

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

, who remarked that the production was "as lovely a Western as I've seen in a long time."

Remake

A 2003 made-for-TV remake also called '' Monte Walsh'' was set in Wyoming and directed by Simon Wincer.

Tom Selleck Thomas William Selleck (; born January 29, 1945) is an American actor. His breakout role was playing private investigator Thomas Magnum in the television series ''Magnum, P.I.'' (1980–1988), for which he received five Emmy Award nominations ...

and

Isabella Rossellini Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (born 18 June 1952) is an Italian-American actress, author, philanthropist, and model. The daughter of the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and the Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is noted ...

playing the parts of Monte and Martine.

References

External links