Customer Rating: 
Summary: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Comment: There are no words to describe how SLOW this movie was from beginning to end, but let me try anyway so as to give people a fair chance to avoid it and thus try and prevent their day/evening from being ruined: the film deals with the story of a schoolteacher from New England who meets a Virginian cowboy on the plains of Wyoming.
The presence of Bill Pullman and Diane Lane did very little to alleviate the pain of watching this slooow and boooring mooovie...
In addition, Diane Lane's character was way to pushy/bossy/feminist for late 19th century, making it rather unrealistic.
As for the supporting characters, this film does not seem to be their thing, and subsequently they look like they are out of place.
In relation to the plot and the dialogues, they are way beyond "below average."
With the exception of the setting, (the plains are indeed breathtaking!) everything else is nothing to write home about.
In conclusion, the potential for a decent movie was there if only the writers had the ability to... write! A shame really...
Rent or buy at your own risk.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Love this movie.
Comment: I love westerns. Simple, clean, classic stories of moral dilemas. This is one of my favorites.
Customer Rating:
Summary: the virginian
Comment: i liked this movie but would recommend that it would be put into dvd so that all the scenery can be seen as well.
Customer Rating:
Summary: "Smile when you say that, pardner!"
Comment:
Director: Bill Pullman
Format: ColorRated: NR
Studio: Turner Home Video
Video Release Date: February 6, 2001 Cast:
Pullman The Virginian
Diane Lane Molly Stark
Dennis Weaver rival rancher
James Drury The Judge
Others: unidentified
A schoolteacher, Molly Stark, comes West to Wyoming and meets the Virginian who falls for her. He is made foreman of the Judge's ranch, but the ranch is competing with Dennis Weaver's (of Gunsmoke fame) ranch. There is also a rivalry between the Virginian and Trampas ("Smile when you call me that, pardner!"), who quits when he becomes foreman rather than take orders from him. The Virginian is forced to hang one of his saddle mates when he turns outlaw.
This story has all of the elements of a good Western, pathos, struggle, rustling, violence of which Molly disaproves, and causes tension between them very similar to that in High Noon, made later.
This is the story that started them all, and became the pattern for the genre and was the granddaddy of all of the nonsense "Wild West" mythology, including the ridiculous fast draw contests in the middle of the street, the fancy cowboy outfits, and the idea that murderers adhered to chivalric rules of combat instead of the backshooting, drygulching and murders that actually took place, just as in the Bowery, but in smaller numbers in the West.
Joseph (Joe) Pierre
author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books
Customer Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly touching story with gorgeous music
Comment: This is one of the best westerns I have ever seen. After spending our vacation in Montana this year, this video made me yearn for that majestic loneliness and the strong sense of the importance of the individual. The unusual score also adds a mysterious, haunting quality to the film.Yes, the story is a tad rushed, but the acting is superb. For a first time director, Pullman, certainly drew touchingly realistic portrayals from the fine cast. It is interesting to note how Pullman has "modernized" The Virginian by making him not such the perfect "natural man", ala Fennimore Cooper. He is rather a man filled with a sense of anxiety and doubt, but who also has a strong sense of his own worth and duty to the people around him.
