Comanche Moon  author Larry McMurtry doesn’t believe in subtleties. In prose and onscreen, the tried and true is tried and tried again, even if the truth is buried deep in the heart of Texas stereotypes. But somebody must appreciate Larry’s simple world; after all, he boasts a Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award which I bet  he polishes daily in smug satisfaction.

But enough about the curmudgeonly cowboy who in a recent press interview compared himself to Charles Dickens.   (I’m not kidding). Instead, let’s wax poetic about the final chapter in his Lonesome Dove saga, which is really a prequel, but no matter cause the resulting production was a stink bomb whether it is before, after, during, over, under or behind the original.

That be Comanche Moon, my friends. CBS and Larry McMurtry, Simon Wincer and Diana Ossana’s craven attempt to cash in one last time on the ballyhooed 1989 miniseries starring Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Diane Lane and Anjelica Huston.

Let me put it this way…Comanche Moon  ain't no Lonesome Dove.  

As Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae, Karl Urban and Steve Zahn more accurately play Tommy Lee Jones as Woodrow Call and Robert Duvall as Gus McCrae. It was distracting to watch these reasonably capable actors affect the tics, demeanor, even the vocal intonations of the two old pros. This is a huge directorial misstep since it prevents Urban and Zahn from defining the characters as their own; further reminding how much we miss Jones and Duvall. And man o’ man, do we.

Then there be the Comanches …

Remember the bad ol’ days where Indians onscreen were predictably dense, depraved and diabolical? They’re baaaack!

Less than an hour into the three-day miniseries, a scene ripped from Hollywood's racist gallows was revisited to arouse our brutish impulses. Call and McCrae come upon a gruesome discovery of a white settler family; the males murdered while the women, including the young daughters, kidnapped by the plundering Natives. Fortunately, or maybe not so fortunately, the Rangers swoop in to save the terrorized captives. But too late. A brutal rape has the hysterical missus pleading for a kinder fate—death—deemed far preferable than reentering civilized society a befouled, repugnant wretch.

Speaking of dense, depraved and diabolical—enter Adam Beach as Blue Duck, the half-breed son of real-life Comanche chief Buffalo Hump. He’s so freakin’ mean he hates his daddy (played by Wes Studi, who quite frankly, phoned in his performance), tortures bears and torches settlers, and delights in defiling white women. And that’s just a typical day.

Really, have you ever seen Adam Beach work so damn hard to BE NASTY?! Granted, he’s trying mightily to play against type as the noble Native encrusted in films like Windtalkers, Flags of our Fathers  and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. But in his over-zealous attempt to appear menacing he instead looks like a lunatic—and unless you’re playing Freddy Krueger, that is not a good thing.

Being equal opportunity bigots, Comanche Moon’s  women fare no better. Whore or virgin, trollop or victim and always defined by their man. Or men. Or many, many men. And Latinos should feel all warm and fuzzy knowing how much the sleazeball bandito image is still appreciated in film.

In press interviews, Ossana stayed totally on script claiming that unlike other network productions, Comanche Moon  took great strides to depict Natives accurately and sensitively, such as using REAL EAGLE FEATHERS onscreen for the first time in 45 years.

Totally on script and utterly misguided.

It is interesting to note that director Simon Wincer has Into the West  to his credit and Ossana and McMurtry are the same team that wrote the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain. These facts harbor a few clues, including a propensity to portray emotionally constipated cowboys, woebegone women and Natives as Stepin Fetchits and Troglodytes.

And so here we are in 2008. Still reveling in emotionally constipated cowboys, woebegone women and Natives as Stepin Fetchits and Troglodytes.

Stuff the eagle feathers. We deserve much better.

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Can't get enough of Comanche Moon?  Check out our Indie-pendent VUE blog for more perspectives. And if you're really into self-punishment, visit the CBS website for video clips and more… www.cbs.com/specials/comanche_moon