Director: Walter Hill
Writer: Walter Hill (Screenplay) Peter Dexter (Book)
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Ellen Barkin, John Hurt, Diane Lane, Keith Carradine, David Arquette
Plot: The early career of legendary lawman Wild Bill Hickock is telescoped and culminates in his relocation in Deadwood and a reunion with Calamity Jane.
Tagline – A legend never dies
Runtime: 1 Hour 38 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Wild Bill starts at the funeral of Wild Bull Hickock (Bridges) with Charley Prince (Hurt) telling his story, this will see us learn how Bill when from sheriff with a legendary status before losing this position, seeing his status follow him around until he finds himself in Deadwood where he can reunite with Calamity Jane (Barkin).
As Bill learns that his actions have caused him to create enemies, it gives us a list of the people that might well have been the one that finally killed him.
Thoughts on Wild Bill
Final Thoughts – Wild Bill brings us the story of another lawman in the old west, we see how his life went through a string of different events, with each one coming along to make something else more difficult for Bill and the number of enemies will always grow against him. The problem with a lot of this story, is that Wild Bill doesn’t seem like an iconic enough name in the history of lawmen to make it justifiable to be in leading figure in a film. When it comes to the cast, we have an excellent cast, with Jeff Bridges, John Hurt, Ellen Barkin and Diane Lane taking the biggest roles in the film, with a strong supporting cast too. In the end this just isn’t the most entertaining western, that just doesn’t get going to any levels that many other westerns can.
