One Of The Best Westerns Of The 1980s Only Happened Because John Wayne Turned It Down

Summary

• John Wayne’s rejection of Lonesome Dove may have cost him a final classic, proving he should have accepted it.
• Wayne’s refusal led to the acclaimed Lonesome Dove miniseries, featuring a stellar cast and emotional storytelling.
• Despite the decline of Westerns in the 1980s, Lonesome Dove became a standout, influencing a comeback in the genre.

The most acclaimed Western of the 1980s only came to pass because John Wayne originally turned it down. When Heaven’s Gate bombed it killed Westerns during the 1980s, with the Michael Cimino epic barely taking in $4 million against its $44 million budget (via The Numbers). Of course, the genre had been fading with audiences for some time. Westerns used to be one of the biggest genres in Hollywood, but by the 1960s, younger audiences began to find them old-fashioned.

Clint Eastwood outings like A Fistful of Dollars or Hang ‘Em High offered darker, more cynical takes that connected with audiences, but he was the exception. John Wayne starred in 80 Westerns during his career, and will always be synonymous with the genre. The final years of the Western icon’s career were a mixed bag; for every gem like The Cowboys, there were duds like Rio Lobo. Still, Wayne’s final performance in 1976’s The Shootist – where he played a gunfighter dying of cancer – was one of his most poignant.

John Wayne Rejected The Original Lonesome Dove Screenplay

It’s not the only great script Wayne passed for bizarre reasons

Ironically, John Wayne may have saved Heaven’s Gate had he starred in the movie, since he was the first choice. Wayne is famous for the amount of great projects he passed on, including High Noon and Blazing Saddles. During the early 1970s, Wayne was offered a promising project called The Streets of Laredo, based on a script by Larry McMurtry. Up-and-coming director Peter Bogdanovich had the itch to direct an old-fashioned Western epic and wanted to unite the biggest names in the genre: James Stewart, Herny Fonda and John Wayne (via Créations Originales).

While Henry Fonda and James Stewart said yes, John Wayne passed on The Streets of Laredo, disliking its end of the Western premise.

McMurtry penned a huge script that went over 300 pages, and after chopping that in half, Bogdanovich offered The Streets of Laredo to his three leading men. While Fonda and Stewart said yes, Wayne passed on The Streets of Laredo, disliking its end of the Western premise. Not wanting to recast the role with another actor, Bogdanovich dropped the project. Many years later, McMurthy brought back the rights to his screenplay and reworked the material into his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove.

Bogdanovich believes the main reason John Wayne passed on this early take on
Lonesome Dove
is because his mentor John Ford advised him to.

The Streets Of Laredo Was Pitched As The “Final” Western

John Wayne wasn’t ready to “hang up his spurs” when McMurthy’s script came his way

Even if Westerns were waning in popularity, Wayne was one of the few actors still pumping them out during the 1970s. However, Bogdanovich believed that all the great Western stories had already been made and wanted Streets of Laredo to be a finale for the genre. That’s one area where Wayne disagreed with the director, as he wasn’t “ready to hang up his spurs” at that time. Bogdanovich felt the film would only work with the most iconic names of the genre, and refused to consider alternatives like Burt Lancaster for Wayne’s part.

The Streets of Laredo wouldn’t have been alone in its deconstruction of the Western myth, however. Everything from Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West to The Wild Bunch had dealt with similar themes previously, but the scale of what Bogdanovich was aiming for would have made it stand out. It also would have been exciting to see the biggest Western icons brought together one last time for the ultimate ode to the genre.

Lonesome Dove Became The Best Western Of The 1980s

CBS’ Lonesome Dove was peerless during the genre’s worst decade

It sounds like damning with faint praise, but the CBS’ Lonesome Dove miniseries would become the best Western of the 1980s by some distance. This all-star adaptation of McMurthy’s novel cast Robert Duvall as Gus (the role intended for James Stewart) and Tommy Lee Jones as Call, the character John Wayne passed on. These two aging best friends and former Texas Rangers ride out from their home in Lonesome Dove to lead an epic ride to Montana for one final adventure.

Outside of its two leads, the cast is an embarrassment of riches, featuring Diane Lane, Anjelica Huston, Chris Cooper, Danny Glover, a young Steve Buscemi and many more. Lonesome Dove was acclaimed when it aired in 1989 and pulled in a surprisingly big audience for such a bleak, melancholy look at the Old West. It helps that the series featured impeccable writing, with the main characters being flawed but fascinating.

The 1980s featured a few gems like Clint Eastwood’s Western comeback Pale Rider or Young Guns, but Lonesome Dove blasts the competition out of the water. It’s a layered, emotional and handsomely mounted work, and may have helped the genre make a short-lived comeback on the big screen in the 1990s. In the years after it aired, there was an influx of great Westerns, including Dances with Wolves, Tombstone and Eastwood’s final “Oater” Unforgiven.

Lonesome Dove Became A Long-Running Franchise

None of Lonesome Dove’s follow-ups came close in terms of quality

Author McMurthy wrote several more books in the Lonesome Dove series, including Streets of Laredo, which reused the title intended for the John Wayne movie version. The miniseries itself was such a major event that CBS has made several follow-ups, though the first sequel Return to Lonesome Dove was mildly controversial for not being based on McMurtry’s writing. The lead role of Call was also recast with Jon Voight, with Jones being busy filming his career-changing role in The Fugitive.

Return to Lonesome Dove wasn’t as well received, and in truth, none of the follow-ups came close. 1995’s Streets of Laredo is easily the best of the sequels, though the final two prequel miniseries proved underwhelming. Lonesome Dove director Simon Wincer returned for the final installment Comanche Moon in 2008, where Steve Zahn and Karl Urban played the younger versions of Gus and Call, respectively.

Lonesome Dove’s Acclaim Proves John Wayne Was Wrong To Reject It

The original version of Lonesome Dove could have been Wayne’s final classic

Wayne scored a few Western classics during his day, including Rio Bravo and the often remade The Searchers. True Grit is considered one of his last truly great offerings, but the acclaim that greeted Lonesome Dove proves he should have accepted it. McMurthy was an acclaimed writer, Bogdanovich was at the height of his powers in Hollywood and Wayne would have been co-starring with old friends like James Stewart. Compared to the mediocre likes of Cahill, U.S. Marshal or 1975’s Rooster Cogburn, Wayne should have taken the chance and ignored Ford’s advice.

That said, his rejection of McMurthy’s screenplay kicked off a chain of events that led to the Lonesome Dove miniseries. Call is one of Tommy Lee Jones’ best performances, and it’s almost hard to imagine anyone else doing a better job – including John Wayne himself. For Western fans wondering what a movie featuring James Stewart, Henry Fonda and John Wayne would look like, however, they all featured in 1962’s How the West Was Won.

John Wayne and James Stewart would end up working together one last time in
The Shootist.

Source: The Numbers, Créations Originales/YouTube