I recently acquired The complete Lonesome Dove collector DVD set, digitally re-mastered. About a month ago, my wife and I had a Lonesome Dove marathon, and watched the entire first movie in one sitting. Incredible. Today was a rainy, miserable day, so we had a Return to Lonesome Dove marathon, and watched the Return in one setting. Great Movie. I still favor the the first pone, but the second one is still awesome, too.
I have watched the original about 10 times, but for some reason, I had only seen the second one once before when it first came out on VHS. It was really fun to watch it again after all these years. Few other westerns, with the possible exception of Open Range, capture the West like the first two lonesome Doves. I have lots of other favorite westerns, but LD 1 & 2, and Open Range are the three best. Broken Trail, Crossfire Trail, Last Stand at Sabre River, Monte Walsh, and Connegher are pretty close, but do not capture the grandeur of the open west.