Gunsmoke: To the Last Man

The most significant reality is that this is the third of five television movies in which James Arness portrayed Matt Dillon.

The script is fair and the acting is good. The main weakness of the movie is that it needlessly tried to inject itself in the historical narrative of the infamous Pleasant Valley Range Wars, which took place in Arizona territory from 1882-1892. Considered the bloodiest range war in American history, between 30 to 35 people were killed in it.

Extreme artistic liberties were taken with regard to the integration, including liberal substitution of even the names of the primary people who were part of the actual events. Frankly, it would have been far better to simply depict an entirely fictional range war as the background, and then allow the Dillon narrative to play its course.

There is a small degree of linkage between this movie and The Last Apache, which aired a bit over a year earlier. In the end, there is no poignant historical tie-in, and while the acting and production are good, one is left with the sense that it could have been better.