Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

1990 sequel to the 1988 film Young Guns, I like Young Guns II a little better than the original.

Emilio Estevez, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Kiefer Sutherland reprise their roles in the updated 80s version of the Billy the Kid story. Estevez plays Billy, the leader of the gang of Regulators, Phillips plays the Mexican-Indian Chavez y Chavez, and Sutherland essays the city boy Doc Scurlock. Added to the original cast are William Peterson, as Pat Garrett, and Christian Slater, as Arkansas Dave.

The film opens in 1950 where a city lawyer keeps an appointment with an old codger out on the open range. The old feller claims to be Billy the Kid and wants the lawyer to get the pardon he was promised 70 years before. Doubting just a bit the lawyer asks to see evidence. “Do you have scars?” “Oh yeah, I have scars,” the old man says as his distant eyes fade to reveal a flashback that takes us back to 1879...

The Regulators are on the run from the recognized authorities. Billy springs Doc and Chavez from the prison where they are awaiting hanging, once they have received a fair trial, of course.

The governor (Scott Wilson) secretly meets with Billy and promises him a pardon if he turns state’s evidence against the rival Murphy gang. Billy is arrested for appearances sake. Once the governor leaves, Billy realizes the local Irish politicians will string him up. He escapes and joins his gang. But Billy will not leave the area, so the governor makes a deal with Pat Garrett (William Peterson) to hunt the Regulators down and kill them. In return, he is made Lincoln County Sheriff and given $1,000.

Garrett, formerly one of Billy’s gang, figures he has hit the big time and hires an alcoholic newspaper editor to write the true story of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Accompanied by the tenderfoot newspaperman, Garrett sets out on the trail only to find he is joined by a posse led by the governor’s prissy aide (Vigo Mortenson).

In order to keep the gang from deserting, Billy tells them he is leading them down to Mexico following a secret trail…

There are great gun battles in Young Guns II. One is reminiscent of the classic scene in Red River, where John Wayne outdraws the Mexican vaquero. If you’ve seen the movie, you know the one. In Young Guns II, Billy asks rancher John Chisum for protection money and then guns down two of his vaqueros when he refuses. But the manner in which he does it is highly entertaining to say the least!

Another shooting takes place after the sheriff tells him he’s loaded eighteen dimes in each barrel of his shotgun. Billy gets hold of the shotgun and gives the sheriff one barrel. “Best dollar-eighty I ever spent,” Billy quips. There is a knife fight between Christian Slater and Lou Diamond Phillips that manages to be funny as well as thrilling at the same time.

Like the original Young Guns, the sequel has dozens of quotable lines, most of them uttered by Estevez. When the judge sentences Billy to be hanged until he’s “dead, dead, dead,” Billy responds, “Your honor, you can go to hell, hell, hell.” When the sheriff is told to capture Billy after he escapes, the sheriff says, “I’d rather drink turpentine and pi_ss on a brushfire.” There are plenty more lines that will have you chuckling until your belly hurts.

Acting is good overall with Estevez standing out as he did in the first movie. William Peterson makes an outstanding Pat Garrett and newcomer 14 year-old would-be gang member Balthasar Getty stutters, “I want to ride with the Prince of Pi_ss - Pistoleers.” Veteran scene stealer Christian Slater is in fine form as he continually tries to convince everybody it's HIS gang.

Direction and photography is good, emphasizing the dusty browns of the trail as the gang is relentlessly hunted by the posse led by Pat Garrett.

The musical score, by Alan Silvestri, is excellent and more memorable than the score from the original Young Guns. John Bon Jovi was inspired by Silvestri’s work and wrote the closing song, “Blaze of Glory.”

Anybody who enjoys action and has a sense of humor will enjoy this light-hearted take on the legend of Billy the Kid.

Four stars.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening