Comes a Horseman (1978)

	Directed by: Alan J. Pakula	COUNTRY USA GENRE Western/Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE Det kom en cowboy RUNNING TIME 118 minutes
	Produced by: Gene Kirkwood Dan Paulson
	Written by: Dennis Lynton Clark

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Frank "Buck" Athearn	James Caan
Ella Connors	Jane Fonda	½
Jacob "J.W." Ewing	Jason Robards
Neil Atkinson	George Grizzard	½
Dodger	Richard Farnsworth	½
Julie Blocker	Jim Davis	-
Billy Joe Meyent	Mark Harmon	-
Virgil Hoverton	Macon McCalman

Review

For about three quarters of its running time, Comes a Horseman is an earnest, beautiful account of mid-20th-century ranching, hardships, and companionship – a fine little homage to nature, farming, and the Western storytelling tradition. This was Alan J. Pakula's follow-up to his magnum opus, 1976's All the President's Men, and despite it being his most expensive film up until this point, it was in many ways also his least artistically ambitious. The build-up is patient, the pace slow, and the picture balances constantly on a hair's breadth between poignant and sluggish. Still, when all the dramatic elements work in tandem and Pakula gives his performers room to shine, Comes a Horseman is as good a western as any from this period. Only during the finale, when cluttered plotting and Pakula's clumsy action direction take over, does it all (almost) come tumbling down. Richard Farnsworth, who had mostly appeared as an extra and stuntman prior to this film, delivers a wonderful, Academy Award-nominated performance as Jane Fonda's cowhand Dodger.