Product Description

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/11/2004 Rating: Nr

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9162 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2004-05-11
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 299 minutes

Customer Reviews

great DVD collection
Just watched the Gunsmoke movie collection and all three movies are excellent. Return To Dodge is my favorite, but Last Apache is damn good too. All three movies hit the mark. Arness had seen better days, but his performance is top notch in all of these. He looks older than the mountains he rides past, but I liked him more as Matt in these movies than on the Gunsmoke show. The show was classic, but Arness' personality and character got better with age. Too bad all five Gunsmoke movies aren't in this set, but Return and Last Apache are the must haves for my collection. I'm glad to have 'em on DVD. This is a fantastic set.

gunsmoke movie collection
All 3 movies were very good. My favourite was return to dodge. It was based on the series episode Mannon, which was a very good episode. The series was one of the best shows on television. The stories would still hold up today. The movies in my opinion were weak versions of the TV episodes. I am glad the movies are out on DVD but only because I hope it leads to getting TV episodes on DVD. It would be like a choice for lets say seinfeld fans having a choice between 3 seinfeld movies over a box set of the whole series. I think that would be an easy choice. Or choosing between 3 law and order movies over a box set of the whole series, another easy choice. I will take the movies for now, and I will probably buy the other 2, and they are all good, but I really want the whole series on DVD eventually. I just bought have gun will travel first season, it didn't come yet, I will probably like it but I bought it mainly for a vote to get some of these great classic western series on DVD, mainly gunsmoke. Most of the old TV series released on DVD are pretty weak TV, I hope to see old TV shows that had a good run and were popular, and gunsmoke was the perfect example of this. I hope to see it soon.

Marshall Dillon Heroic Profile
James Arness portrayed the western's most stable hero for years on television. The character Marshall Dillon was presented as very human but very dedicated to serving law and people. Similar to Launcelot in the Arthur Legends, Dillon fought for right and kept himself for one woman throughout his television series days as sheriff of Dodge City. In these movies, the archetypal hero is beyond Dodge City as sheriff, but he never fails to be that man big enough to do the right thing for everyone as he deals with his own problems. These three movies take him through the loneliness of a single life to the addition of offspring he never knew he had and a marriage that allows the aged hero to reap the joys of love and parenthood after nurturing others for so many years. While some of the action obviously shows Dillon doing things that would be too physically demanding for a man of his age, it is fitting that the toughest man in Dodge City doesn't deteriorate in determination or skill in fighting and shooting. Seeing Miss Kitty and Matthew Dillon as wrinkled as the rest of us is a little sad, but the spirit with which the heroism continues is a beautiful reminder that there is a little bit of hero in nearly all of us.