Did Captin Call Regret It?

[FamilyMan]

Watched Lonesome Dove again this weekend and had to wonder in the end if Captin Woodrow Call regretted setting out on that cattle drive as he walked the lonely streets of Lonesome Dove at the end of the movie. That decision lost him his two best friends, as well as other good men.

Would they have been better off in that south Texas desert without every thinking about Montana? What if Jake Spoon had never accidently shot that man in Arkansas then had to run off, eventually finding his way back to Lonesome Dove where he put the though of a Montana cattle ranch into Call's head. Then Gus and Deets would still be alive and at his side for years to come.

Do you think he regretted it? I would have, but I am not as hard a man as he is.

Mark

 

[D13er]

I don't think "death" and "regret" had the same affect on those pioneers as it does on us that are soft and spoiled.

JB

 

[202typical]

Not one bit. I think he would have regreted never doing it. Those were grown men that went along with him. He twisted no arms. The only regret he had was not telling Knute he was his dad.


?Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.?
---Theodore Roosevelt,

 

[overton]

Well said JB.


Ransom

 

[FamilyMan]

My thought is that Call was the sort of man who refused to look backward. Also, Gus told Newt that Call refused to consider himself either human or fallible. Therefore I agree that he would not consider second-guessing himself. Still, he set a chain of events into motion.

Mark

 

[Cow Tag]

Augustus McCrae was the only man that Captain Woodrow F. Call EVER said, "Yes Sir" to.

 

[WYridge]

I just finished reading all four of the books in the series (Dead mans walk, Comanche Moon, Lonesome Dove, and Streets of Loredo) One of the Greatest stories ever written, IMO. I don't think Call had any regrets. He was ready to get out of Lonesome Dove, where they all were just biding time. He and Gus lived for the adventure, they knew the risks and were both fully aware of the dangers that their way of living held.