Reviews

About 15 years ago my daughter (about 13 at the time) and I were surfing channels and got in on the last 30 or 45 minutes of this movie. WOW, I had to own it and finally found it on VHS. A wonderful movie. One of my favorites of this genre.

And Gary Cooper had his own style. This was a bit unlike his other... But he played it to a T... Cooper was a gentleman, and his wife an overbearing witch. His failures result from his being too nice of a guy to make him into the man she wanted him to be. It was wonderful that his daughter found out that he had been happy. And even in that happiness he was still a gentleman.

You see, I have wondered the same thing. Did July Johnson Exist. Did he ride with Nathan Bedford Forrest during the Struggle, and was he truly a lawman in Texas or Arkansas? In BANDOLERO, someone asks, do you think the Sheriff will follow us into Mexico, and Dee Bishop responds, "A South Texas Sheriff who wrote with Nathan Bedford Forrest who was embarrassed in his own town, yeah, he'll follow us. I have wondered since I saw Lonesome Dove and heard the name July Johnson. I wrote to Marshall Trimble of the Arizona Historical society. He answers questions in True West Magazine.

Interesting enough, though, in BANDOLERO, Johnson was a seasoned man, ex-Confederate Cavalry with the sand to be a South Texas Lawman. In LONESOME DOVE, he was a bit inept, and didn't have the sand that Gus had in a many of the instance.

It'll be interesting to know if he truly did exist or if it was truly fiction.

Thanks, Steve McGregor