Review of Monte Walsh

Of all the Western movies I've seen over the years - and it's been quite a few - this is one of the most outstanding. It's really about the honorable way of earning a living by working with and breaking horses and being a cowboy. As that way of lifestyle and profession reach their final stages and start to fade away in America, Palance and his cronies face losing their livelihood, their dignity and their ruggedly-independent way of life. An entire culture stands on the brink of oblivion and the viewer can only be touched by the deeply sensitive way that is handled in this movie and by the incredible performance Palance give as a stoic but caring man who is facing having his whole world shaken and shattered. Palance knows in his heart of hearts that he would rather die than give up his threatened lifestyle. It's hard and it's tough and it's certainly a man's world but it's an honorable and once-honored means of earning a crust or two, and one can't help but share Palance's pain when one of his closest friends goes off the rails and turns to crime when he loses his job as a cowboy. And you feel for him too when he cannot commit to a softer way of life settling down with Jean Moreau, choosing instead to head off "into the sunset" in the vague and obviously vain hope of everything turning around and turning out all right in the end. That's what makes the unbelievably catchy song The Good Times Are Coming so heart-achingly sad. You just know that those good times aren't really coming - they're behind him. No Hollywood glamor here, just a wonderful portrayal of an unambitious but totally honest man who wants to keep on enjoying his times with the boys, riding herds and busting broncos, and refusing to recognize that those days are gone forever. A five-star Western if ever I saw one.