Simon Wincer Top Ten

 1) Lonesome Dove (1989)

2) Free Willy (1993)

3) Snapshot (1979)

4) Phar Lap (1983)

5) DARYL (1985)

6) The Last Frontier (1986)

7) Against the Wind (1978)

8) The Lighthorsemen (1987)

9) Harlequin (1980)

10) Into the West (2005) 

Movie review - "Lovin' Molly" (1974) *

 This film is an abomination.

The credits started I thought "this is okay" but it's sunk within the first two minutes with Tony Perkins (then 40) as a young cowboy and Beau Bridges and Blythe Danner (both around 30) as his friends. They needed to be the same age and played by young actors.

I think the rationale was "well they're playing older later in the film let's get older actors" but there's 50 minutes of them being young.

Perkins is spectacularly bad. Danner is sweet and lovely and might've succeeded in another film but goes down with the ship. Beau Bridges is too chunky. He's not as bad as Perkins but isn't great either.

Susan Sarandon's part - quite big in the book - is blink and miss.

The whole thing feels fake. The friendship. The sex. The mood.

It's awful.

Book review - "The Late Child" by Larry McMurtry (warning: spoilers)

 Sequel to The Desert Rose gets off to a great, if dark, start  with Harmony discovering her daughter Pepper has died, and Harmoney's boyfriend taking off. But after that McMurtry doesn't have any place to go - he bring in Harmony's sisters who chat away (one is a sex addict which does provide some comedy) and Harmony has a young child a cute kid and they wind up in New York and meet some uninteresting characters - some Arabs, a prostitute, her pimp, a dog. There's a plot where the dog falls off the Statue of Liberty and lives and the son and dog become celebrities, and the daughter died of AIDS from straight sex, and then they all go back to Oklahoma and the New York characters leave and Harmony's other family comes in, mum and dad and it's all mum's fault because she's a bitch. It goes on and on.

I liked Harmony because of her resilience but this felt like a lazy book, McMurtry pushing out five pages a day and not revising it. I was relieved when it ended.

Book review - "Larry McMutry: A Life" by by Tracy Daugherty

 I was always going to find this interesting. Daugherty can write and has done research. The book isn't as good as McMurtry's own autobiographical writing which is so extensive. I was hoping for a little more numbers and date behind the books and movies (sales, etc) - Daugherty draws from letters and writings which have to be taken with a grain of salt. Some of the movie stuff, which I know a bit about, was a little wrong which made me wary of the rest of the book.

Ah, look, this is fine. It's better than fine it's very good. I guess I was hopeing for less quotations from people and letters and writing and more hard facts, like more specificity of who he was sleeping with and how much the different books sold and the money he made. And it'k okay on the novels, not amazing (I acknowledge this is due to the fact I have different opinions from Daughterty as to a few of them).

Movie review - "The Desert Rose" by Larry McMurtry (1983)

 Warm, fun, affectionate tale of an aging Vegas showgirl (ie late 30s) and her sixteen year old daughter. So The Gilmore Girls before then. McMurtry loves warm hearted hapless women and this book is full of them. He's maybe a little too warm hearted towards the creepy millionaire who marries the teenage girl. The Vegas milieu is well evoked. It's a warm book but the seediness of the world is still there.

Book review - "In a Narrow Grave Essays on Texas" by Larry McMurtry (1968)

 Excellent collection of essays - McMurtry on sure ground, he dives deep on some Texan writers I'd never heard of, takes pot shots at LBJ which are of their time, talks of driving an Texan citites. A joy to read.

Book review - "Folly and Glory" by Larry McMurtry (2004)

 The fourth in the Berrybender novels and the best because things actually happen - well people die and suffer. They could've made this one book. McMurtry introduces all these characters to have some to kii but some do have impact - Tasmin loses one child to cholera and another to murder at the hand of slavers, leading to Sin Killer going on a rampage. I know he's resorting to killing of young kids to get an emotional response but it does work. He also kills off a nice Indian girl who was helping out.

The characters are on the whole paper thin - horny aristocratic women, scungy Indians, rapists, eccentric locals. Lord Berrybender remainder a joke the whole way. The second half of the book was page-turny. It helped having good vengeance plot and then the Battle of the Alamo. I liked the bit where he quickly killed characters with chloera in a page or two.

But generally this series tried my patience. He made things up as he went along and used too many of his tropes.

Book review - "By Sorrow's River" by Larry McMurtry (2003) (warning: spoilers)

 Book three in this series and I'm getting annoyed. Sorry, Larry, I'm sure you're having fun writing it but this is lazy. Now Tamsin falls in love with another guy Pomp who is reluctant to have sex with her. There's some wacky European journalists in a balloon.

A few violent action set pieces liven things up and it does get better once they arrive at Bents Fort. I just didn't care about these characters - Tamsin, her dad, the one dimensional Indians, the characters killed off when McMurtry got bored with them. These stories should have made the one book.

Book review - "The Wandering Hill" (2003) by Larry McMurtry

 The second in McMurtry's Berrybender stories lacks the verve of the first - that at least was focused around the romance of Tamsin and Jim; in this one she has a baby and there's shenanigans with the family - dad's an idiot and has sex, the mountain men gossip, there's an occasional bit of gore. It builds up to a massacree but everyone is saved by fog.

Always easy to read it just feels like a book written by someone turning out five pages a day.

Book review - "Zeke and Ned" by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana

 Like Pretty Boy Floyd I think this began as a script - you can see its appeal with its buddy two leads, one of whom is the handsome and good shot, Ned. It's based on a true story about which I knew nothing, Ned Christie's War, in Oklahoma, where a Cherokee went on a crime spree that was justified and held off enemy attackers.

Not as depressing as I feared. I mean, the whites are bad, and Ned's kid killed and wife assaulted but he kicks a lot of arse and kind of goes to his death. Long epilogue. Good action - described in more detail than usual for McMurtry. The structure is stronger too. I liked this book a lot.

Book review - "Anything for Billy" by Larry McMurtry (1988)

 McMutry takes on Billy the Kid via one of his most fun fictitious protagonists - a wealthy man from Philadelphia who writes dime novels and seeks inspiration. This offers McMurtry the chance for satire on dime novels which is fun. There is violence and humour though Billy is never quite a captivating character. A lot of it is made up.

Book review - " Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen Book" (1999) by Larry McMurtry

 A memoir, I guess, full of autobiographical meanderings mostly about story telling but McMurtry also talks about his heart attack, looking for books, his love of books, essays, cowboys. It's beautifully written. Better I think that some of his later memoir works. Wonderful.

Book review - "Rhino Ranch" by Larry McMurtry (2009)

 I think McMurtry did this because he liked Duane Moore so much he felt compelled to see it through to Duane's death - rather quick, of a heart attack while fishing at the end of this book. Painless. But happy enough.

Once again all the gals want Duane - even his wife Anne, who at the start has left him, and at one stage dates Imran Khan which is cool, now is revealed to be on meth head, and she dies in an accident; Honour, his shrink, he occasionally talks to, and is killed off via cancer; there's Dal, a Cambodian at his son's work who moves in platonically but he could love her' a manic pixie horny girl who gives him a blow job and wants to work in porn; some other girl who offers to root him, a sculptor; a millionairess who wants to root him; a journalist who interviews him who might want to root him then roots his grand son.

He has a nice grandson, rabbiting daughters who are barely in it and have no dimension, a loyal friend. Chapters are super short, plots come and go with rapidity (a rhino ranch, meth users, a proposed statue), as do characters (the rhino, a Khalahari bushman, a Texas ranger, a female sherrif). There's sideswipes at Thalia/Archer, a lot of moseying around.

This one is for the diehards but since I'm a diehard I guess I enjoyed it, especially as it's clearly so personal.

Book review - "Boone's Lick" by Larry McMurtry (2000)

Not bad Western from McMurtry - at the end of the Civil War a family head north to Wyoming to find the missing father of the family ("missing" as in he shot through, not he's a mystery). They arrive in time to witness the Fetterman Massacre.

There is easy going prose, bursts of violence, a cameo from Wild Bill Hickcok and a bigger role for Fetterman. Like I said, not bad. Narrated from teen Shay. There's a tough female lead, some cranky old timers. 

The journey doesn't start until one-third of the way through. It's not a long book. The book doesn't feel cohesive. One review I read thought the problem was the focus was it was told from a teen's POV and he wasn't across the emotional issues the way that grumpy Uncle Seth would've, or the female lead. Maybe.

McMurtry said Tom Hanks was interested in a film version - I'm not sure a film version would've been that awesome.

Book review - "Sin Killer" by Larry McMurtry

 McMurtry prides himself on creating characters but the ones here are pretty thing. Hoity yet horny aristoctratic lady who hooks up with hunky mysterious Indian, stuffy lord, cranky Indian... Come on, Larry.

Enjoyable. Easy descriptions of the time, world, 1830s Missouri, Some violence. A little lazy.

Book review - "When the Light Goes" by Larry McMurtry (2007) (warning: spoilers)

 Oh, Larry... He obviously had so much fun writing Duane's Depressed that he cranked out this sequel, which picks up very soon after the events of that last book. Duane is a little sad but in a case of wish fulfilment his lesbian shrink now wants to root him (they kill of her partner) and teaches him good sex, and another young woman with pointy nipples decides she wants to root him/marry him/have him educate her how to love. McMurtry fridges Ruth Popper but not before she slags off the love making abilities of Sonny - which isn't that consistent with Last Picture Show but gosh McMurtry really came to hate Sonny. Oh and Duane has a big dick, McMurtry makes sure we know that.

Look, I enjoyed the book actually, read it straight through very quickly. It's just a little silly. Only for fans.

Book review - "Duane's Depressed" by Larry McMurtry (1999) (warning: spoilers)

 McMurtry really liked this novel I think because he identified with Duane so much. Sonny is barely in it - he's live, just decaying - while he's killed off Jacey which seems a little mean. Was this because McMurtry had fights with Tim Bottoms and/or Cybill Shepherd?

So we've got Karla and also Duane, who is still handsome and seems to have money after Texasvill and is admired, who has a little melt down, goes walking a lot one day and moves into a cabin. He sees a shrink. The novel goes into his head a lot. The second act twist is they kill Karla and the contrast between the depressions is well done and takes on another dimension.

It is a satisfying read, very internal - hard to film. Duane's kids and grandkids are ciphers as are most of the town. Ruth is in it going blind, Sonny dies unmemorably. But the internal stuff is strong and I was moved by the end with Duane reading Proust and finally going overseas after he's cried about his dad because McMurtry is so clearly into it.

Book review - "The Last Kind Words Saloon" by Larry McMurtry (2014)

 Short novel set in the old West involving Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday with appearances from Charles Goodnight and Indians and Nellie Bly, I think. Oh and Buffalo Bill Cody. One of McMurtry's "I write ten pages a day so here's a novel" books but it's easy to read, and being about Wyatt Earp gives it freshness. There's amiable talk with brief interspersed violence, and some Indian torture - McMurtry really loved putting that in his later books. The gunfight at the OK Corrall is dealt with very quickly.

Book review - "Roads" by Larry McMurtry

 A selection of writings by McMurtry about his road trips around the USA (significantly, only the USA no overseas travel for him). Entertaining and insightful - he does a lot of driving always has (that rural upbringing) spends a lot of time alone in a car, it clearly settles him. He associates areas with particular authors eg Hemingway in Key West so gets to chat about writers, a great McMurtry strength. This is as good and as revealing, if not more, than the official McMurtry memoirs

Book review - "Last Picture Show" by Larry McMurtry

 McMurtry was later very harsh on this book which he said was written very quickly without style although he admits it had a strong sense of character and time and place. Lots of sex and writing about sex - this book was actually more commercial than i remembered because it's about young people growing up and having sex trapped in a small town and there's always a market for that eg Peyton Place, Kings Row.

This is better written than them of course. The leads are okay - Sonny, Duane, Jacy - but the adults really well sketched: the gay English teacher kicked out of town, the most likely gay football coach, the coach's wife (beautiful portral), Jacy's mother (who roots Sonny here but it basically a nice person giving good advice... like the dad in Leaving Cheyenne come to think of it), Sam the Lion, the horny youth who winds up kidnapping a little girl (maybe not as minor a crime as McMurtry paints). He admits to hating Archer City when he wrote it and you can tell.

Things feel so true though like the "fast" party where everyone is nude and urban legends growiung. Other stuff feels more location specific like having sex with cows and visiting Mexico.