Young Guns (1988)

Directed By Christopher Cain

The Cast:

Emilio Estevez as William H. Bonney (Billy The Kid)
Kiefer Sutherland as Doc Scurlock
Lou Diamond Phillips as Chavez Chavez
Charlie Sheen as Dick Brewer
Dermot Mulroney as Dirty Steve Stephens
Jack Palance as Murphy
Terence Stamp as John Tunstall
Terry O'Quinn as Alex McSween

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Back in the late 1980's, people in Hollywood had the idea of taking the tried and true Western, and infusing a youth movement. That movement included big names like Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, and Charlie Sheen. Lou Diamond Phillips and Dermot Mulroney would become much larger later on, but they were of course shadowed by the bigger names. The common thread is that they were all attractive men with a growing fan base, and by putting guns in their hands, the hope was to create a great action film. To say the least, Young Guns ended up being a very exciting movie, and it brought a lot of money to its creators. Over the years sales of Videos and DVD's have really solidified it as a successful film. Director Christopher Cain was not quite as able as his stars to create a career off the movie, and he eventually fell off the map as a Director.

Young Guns is the story of six boys, lets call them outcasts, who have been taken in by John Tunstall. Tunstall is a store owner, and cattle rancher, who has been able to look past the trouble that these boys have been in, and wants to be the one to give them a second chance. He is a really stand-up guy, but he is at odds with another not-so-nice man named Murphy (Jack Palance). Murphy wants to control all the sales of cattle, but in order to do that he needs to buy out Tunstall to create his monopoly. Of course Tunstall refuses, and as a result Murphy has him killed by a gang of his workers. This sets in motion a series of events that ends with the 6 boys being deputized with the job of bringing Tunstall's killers to justice. With some of the boys bent on revenge, they now have badges to go out and get the job done.

The leader of the group is Dick Brewer (Charlie Sheen), who wants to do everything by the book, but soon finds that to be impossible with people like William H. Bonney (Emilio Estevez) along for the ride. Bonney has a very loose trigger finger, and isn't keen to taking orders. This leads to situations beyond the law, and puts the whole group on the run. Caught in the middle are other characters played by Keifer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Dermot Mulroney. The 6 are on their own in the word, having only each other to depend upon, and if they are going to survive the upcoming battle with Murphy's men, they are going to have to stick together. Not only that, but they are going to have to make smart moves if they don't want to be killed before they actually make it to Murphy.

To be blunt, Young Guns is a movie straight out of the 1980's. The intent is to present an exciting movie about gun-slinging in the old West, but to bring it up to date with characters that are fun and interesting. Some of the storylines start to take a back-seat in importance, in order to throw a few extra shoot-outs into the main storyline. We don't get to find out enough about the individual characters, and that leads to an audience becoming detached from the central story. Sure, we care about the outcome, and we want the group of rag-tag cowboys to survive, but lost is the sense of what is right or wrong about the whole situation. It is obvious who the good guys and the bad guys are within the film, and you could almost think of the film as Top Gun on horses. Sure it is exciting, and it is something that many people will watch many times, but it doesn't cement itself as a great film, instead being an exciting Western showing the old West in a different light. I do recommend it, but it isn't something you are going to be remembering for its great writing or dialogue.


*Note: A key piece of Dialogue actually was taken from the movie to create the introduction to a now famous Warren G and Nate Dogg rap song.






Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD