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Monte Walsh Customer Reviews (16 - 18 of 25 Reviews)

Mr., Are you a cowboy?
Tom Selleck has made his living with western films lately and this is a nice addition. Selleck is a believable cowboy and may one day be remembered best for roles like this

Monte Walsh, a cowboy's cowboy! He's the guy all of us boys wanted to be. The best of Bronc Busters. Witty and intelligent. Tough as nails. Fast and accurate with a gun. Loyal to his friends.

Monte's goal in life was simple. He wanted to drive cows from Texas to Canada and get paid for it, if at all possible. Unfortunately for Monte and the other range riders, the modern era is fast upon them. Eastern corporations have begun to buy up the range and jobs are scarce. Bespectacled, bowler topped accountants assume they know how to manage the cow business, while the likes of Monte, Chet, and Shorty swallow dust day to day.

There is an interesting story line here and its fairly easy to follow. There is a little unnecessary language and some suggestive adult relationships to take away any opportunity to make this a good family film, but altogether tame compared to most. The show is nicely photographed and vivid in every way. If the truth is told, the story isn't nearly as important as the acting and the portrayal of the West we've dreamed about.

Western with great Depth
This remake of the 1970 movie of the same name starring Tom Selleck is not immediately what you are likely to expect, after about 15 mins into the picture. Set at the turn of the 19th century, Selleck plays the title role as a true cowboy, slowly realising that he is rapidly becoming an anachronism, to the ever evolving world around him. Unhappy with what he sees more and more, he comes to take a stand against the faceless Eastern companies threatening the very fabric of his World, in heroic, but not typical fashion, and this essentially sets up our story. Hardly action packed, and more than a few dry screen moments mean however, that Selleck really has to work hard to maintain the flow of the story, but he does so with a depth of character and credibility that is accomplished to say the least. This is probably not a movie you will sit around and talk about for hours, and will ceratinly be more popular with dedictaed fans of the genre, rather than a more mainstream audience. All that aside, this is a good movie, with some great acting. that unfortunately that just misses the mark.

These Cowboys Displayed Admirable Independence
The cowboys portrayed in this Tom Selleck western performed a disservice for all of the people today who think government assistance is the only means of improving your life. Why, they didn't appear to need the government at all! This, in the thinking of many Americans, is highly unpatriotic.

These cowboys simply endured terrible working conditions, being outdoors in all weathers, without whining; an episode during the early part of the film shows Walsh (Selleck) driving through a terrible winter storm, all on his own, giving no thought whatever to this hazardous workplace situation or complaining to a union representative.

The movie opens with numerous cowboys unemployed due to modernization and corporate expansion into the cattle industry. They foolishly continued traveling about, in search of work, rather than appealing to the government for welfare assistance -- the implication being they were rather independent sorts given to earning their subsistence rather than begging or demanding it from the state.

These unfortunate men obviously had no labor union representation whatever, and could be fired/hired based on the judgment of employers. This in UnAmerican, as about half of us today (per a survey conducted November 2000) believe that a worker's need for his paycheck has priority over his employer's ability to provide it, since all employers are evil and rich.

These cowboys were subject to egregious workplace harassment, as when they drove a herd to a railhead only to see it spooked by an insensitive engineer who considered it "fun" to blow the whistle and spook the herd. The cowboys, rather than squealing to Human Resources or filing charges with the National Labor Relations Board, then horribly vandalized the train. Because the train was owned by a large greedy corporation, that really wasn't a problem -- but the action constituted reverse harassment against the train personnel who had participated in the hostile whistle prank, as they felt scared and threatened in this hostile working environment.

There was no sort of Federal Lunch Program, and the cowboys were forced to eat food cooked in obviously unregulated circumstances, vulnerable to the cook's sabotage. (The dinner incident constituted additional harassment, but the cowboys again did not file any sort of complaint.)

The big evil greedy cattle companies provided no sort of retirement programs. It was required, after your trade usefulness had expired, for you to ride your horse over a cliff.

Finally, these American cowboys didn't appear to understand the need for lawyers, as they simply took the law into their own hands and did what they thought was correct (but their thinking obviously was flawed -- see the seven paragraphs above). They probably would have just shot a lawyer, had any lawyer on Earth possessed sufficient merit to be in the presence of men like this.

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