Pros: Jeff Bridges is the spitting image of Wild Bill Hickok
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: Wild Bill is a fine portrait of a seminal old west figure - dark, violent and probably as close to a definitive portrait as we are going to get. Excellent.
"The theater of Bill's life had come to demand that he walk up the center of a muddy street, rather than to use the boardwalk. He had discovered that being Wild Bill was a profession in itself." Charlie Prince
Probably as close as we will ever get to a definitive portrait of Wild Bill Hickok is the one provided by Director Walter Hill's "Wild Bill."
It is unfortunate that a period in American history, so recent, so beloved, and so important to defining our national character has so little documentation to support the activities attributed to its various heroes and legends! Custer's Battle of the Little Big Horn, The Gunfight at OK Corral, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Jesse James, and Wild Bill Hickok are all major ingredients contributing to the flavor of the American West. Unfortunately, all of these subjects have been endlessly rehashed and revised over the years until it is very difficult to separate truth from legend.
The movie is set in the last month of Wild Bill's life, August, 1876. Director Walter Hill chose to show Wild Bill's life in abbreviated flashbacks, changing back and forth between that present and the former exploits of the famous frontiersman. At last, the movie settles into Wild Bill's final day on Earth -- the day he was shot in the back of the head by cowardly Jack McCall.
Most of the flashbacks involve shooting, because that was what Wild Bill was best at. One soon loses count of the dead that quickly pile up in front of Wild Bill's blazing Navy Colts. Was that twenty-two or twenty-three? Who's keeping score, anyway? The movie goes on to show that during Bill's life, even his closest associates had trouble keeping up with the score.
Narration is provided by William Hurt, as "Charlie Prince" who styled himself a friend of Bill. Hurt provides excellent snippets of narrative insight like the bit I opened this review with.
Wild Bill was a buffalo hunter, Army scout, soldier, town marshal, and gambler. He was also the deadliest pistoleer ever to walk the streets of the old West, the one Hollywood patterned all its many gunfighters after.
Jeff Bridges' gives great weight to the persona of Wild Bill and his bravura performance is worthy of an Oscar, in my opinion. Profane, pigheaded, and stubborn as a mule, he won't apologize even with a pistol pointed at his head. Ellen Barkin adds some color as the love interest, Calamity Jane, while William Prince ties everything together with his spare but eloquent narration. The other supporting actors including Bruce Dern, Keith Carradine, and Marjoe Gortner do fine jobs and add interest to an altogether enjoyable film experience. However, the show is all Jeff Bridges, as far as I am concerned, and that is as it should be -- Wild Bill did not share the limelight with anybody during his own life, neither should he have to in a film about his life. This is a five star western -- Don't miss it!
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