Plot

Story of personal feelings? - search for identity The enemy is... - Indians Robbery story? - a stagecoach Kind of story? - adventure thru wilderness - lawman keeping the peace defending against enemy - rescuing hostage(s) - hunting enemy Love/Sex? - Main character has sex with a prostitute? Who is good, who is bad? - Whities good - Indians bad - Mexicans bad Who is tough/wimpy, smart/dumb? - Men tough - Women wimpy Misc Cliche Subplots - hanging? - prostitutes & poker in saloon

Main Character
Gender: - Male Profession/status: - police/lawman Age: - 20's-30's

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male Age: - 40's-50's Profession/status: - killer How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 6 () Where does story take place? - Texas - General West Mountains/Cliffs Yes Farm/Ranch? Yes Farm/Ranch: - farm - ranch Small town? Yes Small town people: - nice, like Andy/Opie/Aunt Bee - dumb Rednecks, like Gomer Pyle Misc setting - prison - fort/military installation Time book takes place in: - 19th century

Prairie? Yes

Style
Part of a series? Yes overall quality of this book? - 8 Person - rotating 1st How much gore? - 8 () How much suspense/how unpredictable? - 4 () How much action? - 10 () Accounts of torture and death? - very explicit references to deaths and torture Happy ending? - neutral How much dialogue/talking among characters? - 8 () How much non-dialogue descript of thoughts & feelings? - 5 () How much romance? - 4 () Non-dialogue thoughts/feelings primarily about: (optional) - thoughts about society/group - thoughts for/about others - thinking about puzzle/mystery/unknown - thinking about plan of attack - thinking cynical commentary - thinking about plan of action Kind of Series - Other Series Is book humorous? Yes If humorous, kind of humor - Dry-cynical - eccentric personalities Sex in book? Yes What kind of sex: - vague references - descript of kissing impregnation/reproduction - actual description of sex - descript. of breasts descript. of other female anat. Minor characters feature lots of: - cowboys - Indians - politicians - blue collar types - police/investigators - criminals - military - prostitutes

Theme
Saving others Yes Saving others, risking: - life Saving others: - members of group Growing Pains Yes Growing pains: - looking for sex - looking for independence - looking for

boy/girlfriend Loss of innocence Yes Loss of innocence: - caused by prostitution - caused by exposed to atrocities of war - causing hardening of character - causing cynicism - causing greater awareness of how world works Search for Identity Yes Search for identity: - what group one belongs to - what profession one belongs to - who one belongs with - what one is meant to do - what one has been in the past Alienation Yes Alienation from: - from friends Justice Yes Setting things right for: - self - friends Setting things right by means of: - taking powers in own hands Loss Yes Loss of: - friend Loss causing: - anger - sorrow - search for recovery

die from heat exhaustion, starvation, and Indian attack. Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call are just starting out in the Texas Rangers and have no idea of what they are doing for Call it's Duty above all else. For Gus it's the thrill of adventure. Both men don't know just how much danger and death await for them on their first patrol. Jonny Lee Miller and David Arquitte do a fine job as Gus and Call. This is a great adaptation of the Larry McMurtry novel. The script follows the novel very closely, which is the number one requirement of any film adaptation of McMurtry's work. McMurtry's dialogue compels readers to fall in love with the characters, so it must be preserved. David Arquette and Jonny Lee Miller are very believable as young versions of Gus McCrae and Woodrow McCall. Arquette has even picked up some of the physical mannerisms that Robert Duvall used earlier in Lonesome Dove. Patricia Childress really captures the role of the tender-hearted young prostitute Mattie Roberts. Eric Schweig is chilling as the dangerous Comanche Chief Buffalo Hump, and the stunt work by Judson

Keith Linn when doubling for Schweig is fantastic. The sequence where he rides down one of the Texas Rangers and scalps him from horseback is thrilling and terrifying. An equally terrifying nighttime sequence involves Buffalo Hump chasing down Gus on foot during a lightning storm and spearing him with his lance. The cast is full of noted character actors including Brian Dennehy, Keith Carradine, Harry Dean Stanton, F. Murray Abraham, and Edward James Olmos. Olmos is particularly effective as Mexican Army Captain Salazar. I love this mini-series, but it should not be compared to Lonesome Dove. Every adaptation of McMurtry books is different, using different casts, etc. Don't compare them, just enjoy them. Gus and Call are literally two young pups when it comes to the ways of the world, although Gus is already showing his delight in keeping company with the nighttime ladies who so willingly offer him a good time as long as he has the cash to pay for it. When the two young men, trying to survive Texas on their own, randomly meet, they quickly form a bond that will last them for the remainder of their lives. At loose ends, and hoping for a little adventure, the two join up with a raggedy bunch of Texas Rangers on two different missions, both of which the boys will be lucky to survive. It is the second trek into the Texas desert, during which the Rangers must cross the Dead Mans Walk from west Texas to New Mexico that gives the book its title. But, before the boys and their fellow survivors begin what seems like a certain death march, they must first survive the attentions of the Comanche, Buffalo Hump, and the Apache, Gomez, two men who will haunt Gus and Call for rest of their lives. Dead Mans Walk pulls no punches when it comes to the raunchy lifestyle of the nineteenth century Texas Rangers or the torture-focused warfare the Apache and Comanche tribes waged against the white settlers encroaching upon their hunting grounds. To say that the book is not for the fainthearted reader is an understatement. What makes Dead Mans Walk so intriguing, and atypical of the popular western genre, is that McMurtry does not take sides in the conflict between the settlers and the Indians. He presents the good and bad elements of both groups and leaves it up to the reader to decide the rightness or wrongness of the conflict. In addition to meeting Gus, Call, Buffalo Hump and Gomez, the reader will delight in spotting the young Clara, as well. That she was love at first sight for Gus is certain; what was on flirtatious Claras mind remains to be determined. Dead Mans Walk is a great western adventure but, as usual with a McMurtry novel, character development does not take a back seat to plot. The book is filled with memorable secondary characters, good guys and villains alike, and its ending (although it might seem farfetched to some) works perfectly for those that grew up on old-fashioned television and movie Westerns. http://bookchase.blogspot.com/2011/01/dead-mans-walk.html SAM SATTLER

As attention-grabbing plotlines go, its hardly a world-beater: buttoned-down British royal suffers speech impediment and hires unconventional Aussie quack to conquer his fear of public oratory. So its thanks to the best efforts of writer David Seidler, director Tom Hooper and, especially, leads Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush that The Kings Speech isnt just an enlightening period drama, but a very entertaining, heartfelt and surprisingly funny crowd-pleaser with a glint of Oscar gold in its eye. This is a film of small, precise, perfectly judged moments: while the historical backdrop could easily have made for epic overstatement and hand-wringing melodrama, Seidler and Hoopers decision to focus their attention on the characters and on their relationships and insecurities, makes The Kings Speech feel intimate and wholly convincing. And in structuring the plot like a sports movie, with Firths George VI as the plucky outsider thrust unwillingly into the ring and Rushs Lionel Logue as the maverick coach who talks him up off the ropes, the filmmakers press all the uplifting emotional buttons which audiences respond to. This is, at heart, an actors movie, and both Firth and Rush are on top form. Their scenes together, as Logue breaks the King down, trying to unearth the scared boy inside the defensive, blustering aristocrat, are a joy to behold, packed with little moments of pure performance and sly, unexpected wit. For all its period trappings and occasionally heavy-handed Freudian psychodrama, The Kings Speech always comes back to the unlikely friendship between two superbly sketched, immaculately played characters. By the rousing wartime finale, itll be a staunch, hard-hearted republican who doesnt feel the urge to yell, God save the King!