Lonesome Dove

Robert Duvall is Gus. I returned to the book recently — and listened to the new audiobook read by Will Patton — and it’s hard not to hear Duvall and imagine his mannerisms (the smirks, the mustache tics, the shake of the head). I’m struck by how faithful this adaptation is, especially with the dialogue. It compresses things, sure, and certain layers get lost or muddled. Showing us Jake Spoon’s second shooting, for example, might help us see why he’s such a “leaky vessel” to Gus and Call, who have known him for years. It’s hard to approximate Larry McMurtry’s expansive, panoramic view of the old west at the verge of its closing but a few moments in Simon Wincer’s series come close. Most memorable is the fateful Buffalo scene between Gus and Pea Eye near the Yellowstone, which comes as close as any to delivering the work’s thesis. There, the images over the ridge and beyond reflect the long view, lost on Pea, that McMurtry’s Augustus McCrae has given voice to since the beginning. It’s only fitting, then, that he comes to embody the consequences that still mark us as readers and viewers. Watching Part IV, I realized the pivotal images near the end that really stuck out to me as a child 30+ years ago barely last a few seconds and are not in the book. Gus was right. Again. “Yesterday’s gone and we can’t get it back.”