Always talking about a "poke."

This is the best role of Duvall's career, and it's too bad it was a t.v. movie series since he would have won the Oscar for this role as Augustus "Gus" McCrae, retired Texas Ranger, who with his partner, W. F. Call, played by Tommy Lee Jones, form the first cattle herd to go to Montana. This is a bravura performance in anyone's book.

This may well be the best Western ever made as it cuts out a lot of the Larry McMurtry politically correct blather.

McCrae was perhaps the most 'fleshed out' portrayal that Duvall ever did. Quite possibly because of the sheer volume of lines and screen time, since Lonesome Dove was an epic mini-series. But you could cut this film down to a 2 hour, 1 night event...and Augustus would still be a force of nature, given Duvalls treatment of the character.