And the Sacketts were the first family of his westerns.
I haven’t read a lot of books of fiction in the last few years, but that hasn’t always been the case. In years gone by, I used to read a lot of westerns. While I liked various authors, Louis L’Amour was hands down my favorite. I’ve sometimes heard comparisons between Zane Grey and L’Amour but to me, L’Amour was a much easier and enjoyable read.
While Grey used a lot of verbiage to describe sunsets, and settings, to me L’Amour’s characters were more clearly defined, and his dialogue much easier to read.
L’Amour was an amazingly prolific writer, producing about 100 books, mostly westerns. I’ve read, probably the majority of those.
Some may say that L’Amour’s westerns had a certain formula. I agree. When I bought a L’Amour western, I pretty much knew what I was getting. And I liked it.
A few of my favorites.
Some of his books involved the fictional Sackett family. Any of the Sackett books were must-reads for me. Beyond that, a few of my favorites are “Conagher,” “The Quick and the Dead” and “Tucker.” Of course, a substantial number of his books became movies.
Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott were great heroes for L’Amour based novels
Selleck starred in “Crossfire Trail” while Elliott did outstanding work in “Conagher” and “The Quick and the Dead.” One L’Amour based movie I was mildly disappointed in was” The Sacketts.” While I still very much enjoyed it, some things seemed off just a half-beat.
The Sacketts characterization in the movie wasn’t what I expected.
While Tom Selleck’s Orrin Sackett seemed spot on, Sam Elliott’s Tell Sackett seemed about one step up from a talking bear. Tell isn’t a real talkative guy in the L’Amour books, but Elliott takes that tendency to extreme heights or depths.
As for Jeff Osterhage’s Tyrell Sackett, he talks more than the book version of Tyrell. The movie character is fine, he just doesn’t line up exactly with the book version. If you read the L’Amour novels, Ty Sackett wasn’t one for conversation.
And, about those bad guys…
I love Jack Elam and Slim Pickens as actors, but by the time they played the bad guys in “The Sacketts,” they were about twenty years past being menacing. Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott and Jeff Osterhage vs. Slim, Jack Elam, and Paul Kolso as Kid Newton, plus a couple of extra heavies looked like a mismatch.
Here’s a special shout-out to Kid Newton. “Kid” looked to be middle-aged. Plus, he didn’t look particularly imposing.
And about a couple more western legends…
Ben Johnson was Ben Johnson. And in a western, or pretty much anything, that’s good. His Cap Roundtree was spot on. Glen Ford did a notable turn as Tom Sunday.
While I might quibble about details, “The Sacketts” was still a very enjoyable watch and gives a pretty good idea of what it’s like to read a Louis L’Amour western.
Louis L’Amour is my favorite western writer, though I have also enjoyed Elmer Kelton and Elmore Leonard. Who’s your favorite western writer?