Rating: - Most of the god bits were left on the cutting room floor.
This much cut down and butchered version of the Hallmark adaption of Larry McMurty's great book left most of the meat on the cutting room floor.

Put up on two DVDs it is much shorter that the full six hour version.

In my opinion the book was great for all the detail it provided on the life and times of those living in the West in those days, and I especially appreciated the way the background of the characters and events were presented to flesh out the story. The Hallmark TV series on which these two DVDs are based was true to the book and IMO that is part of the reason it was so mesmerizing.

But in this version almost all the background has been omitted so you don't understand that Gus and Call were once famous Texas Rangers who cleared that part of Texas of the Indians, you are not shown the details of Gus and Clara's youthful relationship so when they finally meet you wonder why. No mention of the young Irish boys fear of snakes, which amplifies his being killed by snakes, almost all the data on July Johnson's search for the killer of his town's Mayor and his deputy Roscoe's adventures with his small, silent rock throwing partner is no where to be seen.

But the omission that I simply cannot forgive is total omission of Blue Ducks taking of the Lori and Gus rescuing her at the cost of Roscoe and the two children's lives. Not only is the action missing you are left wondering why the Lori is suddenly being taken care of by Gus and why she has become so withdrawn. You have been cheated out of the heart of the story.

Plus points of course are the great acting by Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones.

I could go on but the best advice I can offer is to give this synopsis like version a miss and find somewhere the original uncut version of this glorious tale of the West.