Larry McMurtry won the Pulitzer Prize, rightfully so. Something magical happened there between the page and the screenplay and the performance and the audience that was…in bowling, it’s a strike. – Courtesy Motown Productions/CBS Television –Įight years later Lane played her defining role in the Western genre as Lorena Wood to Robert Duvall’s Gus McCrae, in the miniseries Lonesome Dove, widely considered the best made-for-television Western of all time some say the best Western, period. We had so many wonderful actors John Savage, Scott Glenn.”ĭiane Lane was no stranger to starring opposite strong leading men, but the on-screen chemistry between Lane and Robert Duvall’s Gus McRae remains one of the most memorable-and heartbreaking-Western romances in the genre’s history. What a debut! She was just the personification of a pistol. We were down in Durango, Mexico, on John Wayne’s ranch, which is vast, like a county. There was one time everybody had to go to their trailers-we had to call a 15-minute cool-off period between the star and the director. Sometimes and Burt would really get into it. “To work with Burt Lancaster was just epic. She had another great, older leading man on Universal’s Cattle Annie. There’s a special sensibility and sensitivity I suppose they have to, because they’re defenseless: all they can do is run.” I think of horses as more than animals, probably because they interact with us so much. And once again in The Virginian with Bill Pullman for TNT. The only time I really got to was in Cattle Annie and Little Britches, when I was a kid. The fact that that issue is the propellant for the plot is pretty unusual.” With a laugh, she added, “Also, any excuse to get on a horse is good for me. “I hoped (writer/director) Thomas Bezucha could picture me in this character because she was a grandmother, and I understood this internal struggle of trying to get through something emotionally that you’re not ready to do. The Blackledges must fight tooth and nail-on the ground, not the courts-to save the boy. The couple’s son is killed in a farm accident, and after their daughter-in-law (Kayli Carter) remarries, the Blackledges have little contact with their grandson-then no contact when overnight the three move away to live in the boondocks with the husband’s criminal family, dominated by nightmarish matriarch Blanche Weboy (Lesley Manville). Lane plays Margaret Blackledge, who is married to retired lawman husband Kevin Costner, and is thrilled-and a little overbearing-to be a grandparent. Shot in Durango, Mexico, Cattle Annie and Little Britches was Lane’s third film she was part of a cast that included Scott Glenn, Amanda Plummer, Burt Lancaster and Buck Taylor. While Diane Lane was only 14 years old when she was cast as Jenny aka “Little Britches,” she was no stranger to costarring in an ensemble or filmmaking on location. “Is there a horse in it? Is it the zip code? Is it the time frame? This film, I think, qualifies we have several boxes checked.” “What is the criteria for a Western?” Diane Lane asks. Let Him Go may be the most remarkable female-driven Western since Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge came to blows in 1954’s Johnny Guitar, but even its star is a little tentative on the genre. In an exclusive interview, Diane Lane talks about her latest Western, leading men, directors and hope for the next chance to ride on screen. – Courtesy Witliff Collections/Motown and CBS – After Margaret sees Donnie hitting Lorna, she begins to drive George toward confrontation, but when the Blackledges turn up, Donnie and Lorna have skedaddled with no forwarding address.While Diane Lane was not new to Westerns when she was cast as Lorena Wood in 1989’s groundbreaking television mini-series Lonesome Dove, her role permanently defined her as one of the greatest and most beloved heroines of Western film and television. Flash forward three years, and Lorna is getting remarried, to Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain), a suspect member of a notorious crime clan. Their lives are shattered when their son is killed by an out-of-control horse, leaving behind widowed daughter-in-law Lorna (Kayli Carter) and an infant grandson, Jimmy. George Blackledge is an archetypal Kevin Costner character - a retired sheriff leading a quiet life breaking horses with wife Margaret (Diane Lane). Based on a novel by Larry Watson, writer-director Thomas Bezucha’s film pitches a couple living a quiet life in rural Montana against a violent criminal family in order to retrieve an infant grandson, but it might be the most glacially paced rollercoaster revenge in many years that, despite one stand-out performance and strong craft, devolves into an unengaging, tonally wayward mish-mash of quiet character study and over-the-top thriller. Reuniting Kevin Costner and Diane Lane - Superman’s folks from Man Of Steel - Let Him Go is Taken way out West.
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