| Woodrow Call | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Dead Man's Walk |
| Last appearance | Streets of Laredo |
| Portrayed by | Jonny Lee Miller Karl Urban Tommy Lee Jones Jon Voight James Garner Lee Majors |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
Woodrow F. Call is a fictional, Scottish-born Texas Ranger who appears in all four books of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove series. Much of the books revolve around his relationship with his Ranger partner Augustus McCrae. The two are polar opposites, as Call is very task-oriented, with a passion for his work, but very little understanding of the complexities of human relationships, especially when it comes to women. Gus, while an able Ranger, is incredibly lazy and frequently complains about work. Gus is also a gregarious ladies man whom, in his youth, spent much of his time courting Clara Allen, and in both his youth and old age frequently spent time with prostitutes. Despite their opposing personalities, Gus and Call remain close friends throughout the series from their late teens, when they first meet, until Gus's death.
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This book, and the film based on it, tells the story of one of Call's (played by Jonny Lee Miller) first adventures with Gus McCrae. While Texas is still an independent Republic, they sign on with Cpt. Caleb Cobb on a fictionalized version of the Texas Santa Fe Expedition, an attempt by the Republic of Texas to annex New Mexico.
According to the movie, while en route to Santa Fe, the party stops to fish in a river, where they fall under attack by a band of Comanches. In the book, Woodrow is holding on to the tale of his horse while they cross the high river. Woodrow's wary eye and quick reflexes help him to kill a Comanche at point-blank range in the river, earning the name "Gun-in-the-Water" from the Comanches. Unfortunately, the Indian he killed was a son of Buffalo Hump. This act earns him the lifelong enmity of both Buffalo Hump and later his other son Blue Duck.
As the expedition continues, Call, McCrae, and Bigfoot Wallace are frequently called upon to catch food, especially in the more desolate regions of the Comancheria. Buffalo Hump also frequently sabotages their mission by killing members during the night, sending his fellow Comanche Kicking Wolf to steal horses, and setting a fire that destroys many of their supplies.
Call, McCrae and Wallace reach New Mexico first, where they are promptly arrested by Cpt. Salazar, who intends to march them to Mexico for trial. During the march, however, a bear attacks the camp, and the three of them escape to regroup with the rest of the expedition. When they arrive in New Mexico again, their ranks are so thinned that Cobb realizes they cannot hope to capture Santa Fe, so he surrenders to Salazar. Call is offered breakfast, but refuses to eat while the rest of the company starves. Cobb, despite his incompetence, is granted an audience with the Governor. Upon seeing how much better Cobb is being treated, that he is effectively being rewarding for his poor leadership, Call loses his temper and attacks him. Though Cobb survives, Call is sentenced to 100 lashes, a punishment no man before him has ever survived. Call amazes everyone by living through it.
After being captured in Santa Fe, the members of the expedition are forced to march through a desolate region known as the Jornada del Muerto, where several other members die from heat exhaustion, starvation, and Indian attack. They are met by French authorities who are disgusted at Cpt. Salazar's inability to keep his company alive. He is ordered to walk back to New Mexico alone, through the Jornada, while his prisoners are taken to a leper colony in San Lazaro. There the remaining members are forced to choose who will live and who will die by drawing beans from a jar. A man who draws a white bean will be spared, while those who draw a black bean are executed. This method is borrowed from the Mier Expedition, and is historically accurate. Call is one of a fortunate few who draws a white bean.
While staying in Austin between missions, Call becomes a regular customer of a prostitute named Maggie Tilton. Despite her protests, he insists on paying her. Maggie quickly falls in love with him, and hopes that he will reciprocate and marry her. But the reticent Call never does by the end of the book.
In this book, the action takes place at least a decade after Dead Man's Walk, the previous novel. Call (played in the movie by Karl Urban) and Gus are still Rangers, though their company now includes Joshua Deets, Pea Eye Parker and Jake Spoon. While out on patrol with their commanding officer, Inish Scull, the Indian Kicking Wolf steals Scull's horse. Scull had grown tired of being a Ranger and was looking for any excuse to leave his command, and the theft of his horse provided a perfect opportunity for him to desert. He sets out with Famous Shoes to find the horse, leaving the rest of the troop in the command of Gus and Call, who immediately receive promotions to Captain.
Upon their return to Austin, Call receives word that Maggie is pregnant with his child. Call is not given much time to digest this information, however, as Scull's wife Inez puts pressure on Governor Elisha Pease to send Gus and Call to retrieve her husband. Call, McCrae and a group of rangers set out to rescue Scull. The group of rangers are told that Austin had been attacked by Buffalo Hump and his gang. When the rangers hear this news they return to Austin as fast as they can.
When Call and the rest of the Rangers return they find that Austin has been burned by Buffalo Hump and his gang. Call is thankfull to see that Maggie was unharmed during the raid. The Governor finds out that the Mexican bandit Ahumado wants a ransom of 1,000 cattle for Scull. Call and McCrae are unable to obtain the 1,000 cattle ransom and decide to set off by themselves and save Scull. Call and McCrae are able to rescue Scull and return him home safly. When Call returns home he finds out that Maggie has already had her child.
Call and Charlie Goodnight lead a troop of soldiers to a Comanche camp, and eventually meet up with a group of soldiers lead McCrae. The two groups attack and defeat the Comanche people, and save a woman that had been captured by the Comanche for 25 years and returned her to Austin Texas. The Governor asked Woodrow and Gus to hunt down and kill Blue Duck and his gang.
Woodrow and McCrae set out with a small band of rangers and deputies to fulfill the governor’s orders. Call, McCrae, and the rest of the rangers and the deputies are able to defeat Blue Duck’s men, but Blue Duck had left to kill Buffalo Hump. The rangers hang some of Blue Duck’s men but take the younger ones back to Austin to make rangers of out them.
While tracking Blue Duck Woodrow and his gang stumble across the dead body of Buffalo Hump (he had been killed by Blue Duck). Woodrow and his gang are them ambushed by Blue Duck and two of his gang members. Call, McCrae and the rest of the gang try to kill Blue Duck and the two that were with him, but they are able to get away. Blue Duck was successful in killing most of the ranger’s horses hoping to starve the rangers, but thanks to Famous Shoes they are able to survive.
This book has the action set some years after the events in Comanche Moon. Call, played in the film by Tommy Lee Jones, McCrae, Deets and Parker all live in Lonesome Dove, a small town on the Mexican border. Maggie has died, and they have informally adopted her son Newt. Though he is devoted to raising him, Call will not admit that Newt is his son, preferring instead to insist that Jake or even Gus could be the father. Newt is given the last name Dobbs.
Jake has left town for several years, but the story picks up when Deets, returning from a trip to a bank in San Antonio, Texas, returns to Lonesome Dove with Jake. Jake tells them fantastic stories about Montana the usually practical Call is enchanted by. Eventually, he persuades Gus to lead a cattle drive north.
In Montana, Gus is injured by Indian arrows, and dies of blood poisoning, due to his refusal to let a doctor amputate both his legs. Woodrow is reunited with Gus shortly before his death, and the end of the novel features Woodrow leaving Montana alone to fulfill Gus's dying wish, that his body be returned to Texas for burial.
This film was based on an original screenplay, and as such is not considered by Larry McMurtry to be part of the continuity of his novels or of their adaptations. Call is played in this film by Jon Voight.
After burying Gus, Call heads out to return to Montana. On his way to Montana Call spots a herd of mustangs and decides to take them back to Montana with him. Call travels to San Antonio, Texas to find a once Texas Ranger named Gideon Walker, who accepts the offer. Call tells Gideon to gather a trail group to help with the drive. Call then asks Isom, an old friend of his, to join him and Walker in taking the mustangs to Montana. Isom joins the crew and also gets his brother, Isaac, to help with the drive. Walker gathers a bunch of Mexicans to help with the mustang drive, Woodrow is upset with the fact that Walker got Mexicans to help out until he finds out that Walker couldn’t find any good men in Texas.
Call separates from his crew and tells them to meet him at Clara’s place. While on his way to Clara’s Woodrow runs into a criminal called Cherokee Jack. Woodrow recognizes Jack, disarms him, and takes him as a prisoner. While on their way Woodrow is ambushed by Cherokee Jack’s men. Woodrow manages to kill a few of Jack’s men before he is captured by Cherokee Jack and his men. Cherokee Jack convinces his men to respect Woodrow and let him “run arrows”. Woodrow is stripped of everything but his long johns before he runs arrows. Woodrow is given three arrows as weapons and is forced to run for his life. Woodrow is able to get on one of the Indian’s horses and kill the Indian with the three arrows. Woodrow then uses that Indian’s horse and gun to his advantage. Woodrow is able to kill two of Jack’s men before he runs out of his bullets. Woodrow’s horse is killed and Woodrow is forced to jump off a cliff in order to survive.
Woodrow is able to avoid detection from Jack and his men, but is left in a place that is nothing but miles of barren land. Woodrow is eventually able to find an Indian camp where he receives treatment for his wounds, rest, a horse, a rifle, and clothes. Woodrow is forced to take the sister of the tribe chieftain with him in exchange for the horse and rifle. Woodrow eventually makes to Clara’s house to find out that Newt did not meet him there like he asked. Woodrow finds out that Newt had been arrested for killing a man in a bar, and Woodrow left to help Newt. Woodrow finds out that Newt has been released from jail thanks to a man named Dunnigan. Woodrow returns to the ranch and has Pea Eye accompany him, so that he can get Newt. Newt decides not to go to Clara’s with Woodrow but decides to stay with Dunnigan. Newt eventually does return to the ranch to try and straighten things out with Woodrow, but Woodrow is too angry to listen. Dunnigan tried to convince Woodrow to join a group of cattle drivers that he had put together but Woodrow rejects the offer, which angers Dunnigan. Some of Dunnigan’s men steal Woodrow’s horses and Woodrow decides to find out exactly which one of Dunnigan’s men committed the crime. Woodrow’s herd, along with Clara’s herd, are able to make it back to the Hat Creek Cattle Company.
Woodrow is told by Clara that Augustina, a Spanish girl that joined Woodrow’s horse drive, is the daughter of Gus McCrae. Woodrow honors Augustina by making her his new partner. Woodrow finds out that while on their way to town Clara and her two daughters, Gideon, and more members of Woodrow’s group were caught in an ambush by Cherokee Jack and his men and Woodrow quickly rushed to their aid. Gideon Walker was killed by Cherokee Jack. Woodrow sets out with Pea Eye and Isom to hunt down Cherokee Jack. Isom captures Cherokee Jack and kills Cherokee Jack.
Woodrow decides to make a stand against Dunnigan and his alliance because before Jack was killed Jack told Woodrow that Dunnigan paid him to kill Woodrow and his men. Newt sides with his father when he notices that the pouch Woodrow had taken from Cherokee Jack was indeed Dunnigan’s pouch. Dunnigan tries to kill Call, but Call is able kill Dunnigan first. Woodrow and his gang are able to have Dunnigan’s alliance surrender. Woodrow and Newt are able to fix things between the two of them, before Newt leaves so that he can live out his dreams.
This series, which McMurtry also views as apocryphal, focuses mainly on the exploits of Call's illegitimate son Newt Dobbs. Call only appears briefly in one episode, in which he was played by Lee Majors.
Taking place a number of years after the events in "Lonesome Dove," this book shows Call, Pea Eye Parker, and Lorena Wood have all returned to Texas. Lorena and Pea Eye have gotten married, and Lorena now works as a schoolteacher. Call is hired by a railroad company to track down Joey Garza, a Mexican bandit who has been robbing their trains and killing their passengers. Call initially expects Pea Eye to accompany him, but he begs off under pressure from Lorena. Call sets off after Garza with Ned Brookshire, who represents the railroad, and Deputy Sheriff Ted Plunkert, whom he recruits while passing through San Antonio.
Pea Eye eventually sets out to find him with help from Famous Shoes. On their way, however, they are captured and imprisoned by a local sheriff who believes Famous Shoes had stolen and killed a horse years before. Call finds them, and presents him with an order from the governor to release them. The sheriff refuses, and threatens to shoot Call and the others if he lets them out of prison. As he has several times before in the series, Call loses his temper and beats the man senseless for his "rude behavior."
Call and his company then pay a visit to Judge Roy Bean--a fictional presentation of a real character--, where they learn that a pyromaniac named Mox Mox is alive and on the loose in Texas. Call splits off to kill Mox Mox. He ends up only fatally wounding him, but is able to save two young children who happen to be the son and daughter of Jasper Fant, who went with him to Montana, and is reunited with Lorena in San Antonio. While there, he learns that in his absence Joey Garza killed Judge Roy Bean. He and Lorena set out to rendezvous with Pea Eye and the others in Mexico, but on the way Call falls for a trap set by Joey Garza. As Call tends to a horse that Garza had hobbled as bait, Garza shoots him in the leg. Faced with the same choice Gus faced years before, Woodrow has Lorena cut his leg off and take him down to Mexico. In Mexico, a doctor determines that he will have to lose an arm as well. Due to his condition, he is unable to finish the job of killing Joey Garza. Joey, still on the hunt of his pursuers, kills Brookshire, before sustaining a serious shotgun blast by Pea Eye that may have eventually killed him. Garza manages to fatally wound his mother as well, before being killed by a local butcher from Ojinaga, Maria's hometown. In the end, Pea Eye and Lorena adopt Maria Garza's other children, and allow Call to come home and live with them.
Call is played in this film by James Garner. Also in the film, he loses only a leg, not his arm as well.
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