Wild Bill
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Movie Reviews of Wild Bill
Movie Review: Underrated Gem
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great western. Check it out!Movie Review: Good western from Walter Hill
Summary: 4 Stars
It's always good to see a western about Wild Bill. Nearly half of the westerns made concern either Wyatt Earp, Jesse James or Billy the Kid. Wild Bill was equally as famous in his time, but films on him have been few and far in between - "Wild Bill Hickock" (1923) with William S. Hart and "The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickock" (1938 serial) with Wild Bill Elliott are the only two films to focus on Bill, although he has made cameo appearances in a dozen more films (e.g., "The White Buffalo", "Little Big Man", "Calamity Jane"), and he did have his own TV series from 1951-8 with Guy Madison.
Fellow lawman Wyatt Earp, in contrast, has had more than a dozen films about his life and he has been played by such notables as Randolph Scott, Henry Fonda, Joel McCrea, Burt Lancaster, James Stewart, James Garner, Kurt Russell, and Kevin Kostner
"Wild Bill" is a 1995 western starring Jeff Bridges in the title role. Written and directed by Walter Hill of "Deadwood" and "Long Riders" fame, the film has a great supporting cast that includes John Hurt, James Gammon, Ellen Barkin, David Arquette, and Diane Lane, with brief appearances from James Remar, Keith Carradine, Bruce Dern, Christina Applegate, and Marjoe Gortner.
Jeff Bridges may be best known for re-playing the role of Rooster Cogburn from 2010's version of "True Grit" and for his Oscar winning role in "Crazy Heart" (2009). In fact, Bridges was nominated 4 other times for "The Contender" (2000), "Starman" (1984), "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" (1975), and "The Last Picture Show" (1971).
Ellen Barkin plays Calamity Jane. No one exudes sex like Barkin, and her work in films like "The Big Easy" (1987) and "Sea of Love" (1989) is exceptional. She briefly retired from films when she married billionaire Ron Perlman, but after their divorce, she returned. She was twice nominated for a Golden Globe ("Switch" in 1991 and "Before Women Had Wings" in 1997) and won an Emmy for "Before Women Had Wings".
The beautiful Diane Lane plays the mother of the man (David Arquette) who wants to kill Bill for having deserted his mother. Among her 50+ films and TV roles she was nominated for an Oscar for "Unfaithful" (2002) and Emmy nominated for her work in "Lonesome Dove" (1989). I liked her best in films like "Rumble Fish" (1983) and especially "Streets of Fire" (1984).
Beautiful and extremely funny Christina Applegate plays a $5 prostitute who helps Arquette. We know Applegate best as Kelly Bundy from the hilarious "Married with Children" (1987-97), but after graduating from that series she's gone on to earn 4 Emmy nominations and 1 win ("Friends"), 3 Golden Globe nominations ("Samantha Who?"), and won the People's Choice award twice (1999-2009).
James Gammon (1940-2010) as Bill's friend, California Joe, is the scene stealer. Gammon's rough face and deep, gravelly voice are known from more than 100 films and TV roles, the most prominent of which was Nash Bridges' father in the "Nash Bridges" (1996-2001) series and the manager in "Major League" (1989) and the sequel.
Keith Carradine, Bruce Dern, James Remar, and Marjoe Gortner all do excellent jobs in their very brief appearances. One wonders what such name talent is doing in such minor roles, especially since only Carradine (McCabe & Mrs. Miller", "Long Riders", "Annie Oakley", "Last Stand at Sabre River") and Dern ("The War Wagon", "Will Penny", "Hang `em High", "The Cowboys") have much of a track record in westerns.
Walter Hill won the DGA for his work on the TV series "Deadwood" (2004) and the TV mini series "Broken Trail" (2006), but his more famous distinctions are directing films like "48 Hrs." (1982) and producing the "Alien" films (1979, 1986, 1992). Despite working in many genres, his most popular work is in westerns and his favorite directors were directors of western films (e.g., Ford, Hawks, Peckinpah, Leone).
The film received no nominations for major awards. Roger Ebert thought that Bridges "is not in the right role" and the "movie tries for poetry and elegy [but]doesn't get there." In contrast, The San Francisco Chronicle said "these shootouts are explosive and artfully staged" and called it "an audacious wallow in violence and Western legend". The Washington Post claims "Hill evokes the great westerns of the past".
If critical comment was mixed, viewers were not. The film grossed a mere $2 million in a year in which the top grossing films made in excess of $200 million or more. With a production budget of $30 million, the film was a commercial failure. 1995 was not a particularly good year for westerns. No western was nominated for any major award, and the major films that year were "Apollo 13", "Babe", "Braveheart", "Casino", "Dead Man Walking", "Heat", "Nixon", "Seven", "Toy Story" and "The Usual Suspects". Prior to this, "Unforgiven" won an Oscar in 1992 and "Tombstone" (1993) and "Wyatt Earp" (1994) had been hits.
The film is action packed with several flashbacks to savage gun fights involving Wild Bill, interspersed with the slow and steady slowdown between Bill and his stalker. It's certainly one of the better westerns, though not in the same class as "The Searchers", "The Wild Bunch", "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid", etc.
Movie Review: Can't we jump over the B.S.?
Summary: 4 Stars
To start of on the right foot, I always equate gun fighters - real and imagined - with lucky charms. Can't say why, but it is as natural as the sailor and his scrimshaw. Wild Bill, according to this offering, had three such charms: his incredibly comical hat, his watch and his pocket derringer. I loved his watch chain so much I designed one just like it.
This 1995 offering, ahead-of-its-time as westerns get, and equally weird, is must-see viewing. It gives one the feeling, almost clairvoyant, of being part of Wild Bill's life, while almost totally dispensing with any attempt at biography. In this it's refreshing, though as other reviewers have critiqued, it's got too much irrelevant and unnecessary crap.
If you had a nickel for every incredible role Jeff Bridges has played ... well, this man is perhaps the greatest male actor we have today in his age range. Not many of the older ones are left, and the young ones, feh!!
This Wild Bill is one triple-Oscar job if I've ever laid eyes on one. Bridges nails the (presumed) accent, struts his stuff, wears the clothes well and singlehandedly inspired all the silly westerns to follow. I'm surprised that in point of fact this movie is not half as well known as Eastwood's PALE RIDER, which preceded it by about ten years, though WILD BILL was heavily influenced by it.
John Hurt shocked the hell out of me, appearing in a film like this. His role as Bill's best friend Charles Prince is one of the most unfathomable yet most comfortable roles I've seen Hurt accomplish. The only really silly portions of this film, as Charlie reminds us here and there, is the long-winded scene chewing (kinda like my writing).
The flashbacks and memory-visions Bill endures really sold me on this. It could have bottomed out totally, but this added spice, unlike any other Western, the flashbacks and visions are zesty and fresh. Speaking of bottoms, the one truly superfluous thing in this was Ellen Barkin as Calamity Jane. Heck, she was the biggest womanizer in the west! Hardly the ideal love interest to bring into Wild Bill's life - even if they did have a romance in real life.
It cannot be said young David Arquette did a disservice to this film. He is, as Calamity says, just a fool. But ... he is the fool who kills Wild Bill, shooting him exactly the way Abraham Lincoln is shot. Like Lincoln, Wild Bill has some sort of premonition of this. Earlier, he tells the young fool, "I don't wanna be shot in the back of the head like Mr. Lincoln." And that is exactly the way he dies, shot in the back by an idiot-coward.
This film is a jewel and a classic because it is all metaphor. Or simile ... choose your poison. This is the story of a flawed superhero, and in that sense preceded the washed-up, goof-off superhero movies. Charlie is his conscience and his surprise lucky charm. The hilarious California Joe (ever reliable James Gammon, may he rest in peace) is not comic relief but a shadow of what Bill might have been as an old man, or in another life.
The action is worthy and I'll bet they revere this particular film all over the world - because in my mind, it is one of the few that took me back to the dorky old westerns I loved as a kid. It also reminded me a lot of John Ford's films, such as THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE and CHYENNE AUTUMN. There was pretty much nothing John-Wayne-like in Bridges' performance, and that is the best thing of all: he stood far from the shadow of that giant yet Bridges casts another huge shadow.
Get this and never let it go, because it is one of those super-rare movies you're lucky to get to see, and won't see the like ever again.
Movie Review: Once again, Hollywood forgoes the truth and films the legend
Summary: 4 Stars
James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok was shot dead from behind in a Deadwood, South Dakota saloon holding what is now known as the "Deadman's Hand" of aces and eights. This 1995 film from director Walter Hill ("The Long Riders") is not so much about the infamous death or even the storied life of "Wild Bill" (Jeff Bridges) but more the man's death wish. The film is an exploration of the legend and not the recreation of history; Jack McCall (David Arquette, in a very controlled performance of his usual edgy little creep), the dirty low-down snake who plugged Wild Bill from behind, does so in this film version because the famous gun-fighter lawman broke the hat of Jack's mother (Diane Lane). In "fact" Jack told the miner's jury in Deadwood that found him not guilty that his brother had been gunned down by Hickok who had promised to shoot McCall if he saw him. It was only after McCall kept bragging about killing Hickok once too often that Federal lawmen arrested him; before he was hung McCall claimed he had been hired by others to do the deed.The screenplay by Hill is based on the book "Deadwood" by Pete Dexter and the play "Fathers and Sons" by Thomas Babe. In the film's climax McCall and a gang of thugs have gotten the drop on Wild Bill. Inexplicably, the thugs wait for McCall to decide whether or not he has the guts to shot Hickock. At one point Wild Bill offers to shoot himself, just to stop the stupid arguments. Charlie Prince (John Hurt), Wild Bill's educated English friend (and the narrator of the film) says: "Let him do it. He's been trying to kill himself his entire life." This line sounds like it unlocks the entire meaning of the film, but that is only if you take it at face value. "Wild Bill" shows a man playing by the rules of the game, and if he is incapable of loving any woman beyond the moment he is with her, even Calamity Jane (Ellen Barkin), it is not like the West is the land of romance.
The collision of Hickok and McCall is the backbone of the film, which reduces the other events in Wild Bill's life to two sets of flashbacks. In color we get the gunfights on which the Hickok legend was born, such as shooting wheelchair bound Will Plummer (Bruce Dern) while tied to a saloon chair, as well as the failed attempt to perform on stage in New York City with Buffalo Bill Cody (Keith Carradine). But there are also high contrast black & white sequences that are supposed to indicate significant moments in his life of a spiritual or personal nature. These might make him aware of his mortality and his character flaws, but these do not translate into a death wish.
Wild Bill Hickok sat down in a chair with his back to the front door of the saloon because it was the only open spot in the poker game (the gambler in the seat he wanted refused to give it up). That ironic element in the most famous death in the history of the Old West is jettisoned in this film, replaced instead with the rather paradoxical idea that his downfall was due to an uncharacteristic act of sentimentality on his part. In the end, "Wild Bill" comes down to a series of dazzingly brutal gunfights through which Bridges snarls his way. These are scenes that emphasize the choreography of the violence for effect rather than spraying a lot of blood all over the place. In the end, all you have to do is count the number of bullets that come out of his six-shooters to remind yourself this film is Hollywood invention. The final irony is that "Wild Bill" is undone by the very death scene that made Hickok immortal.
Movie Review: Superb Performances And Excellently Directed; BUT Poor Production With Little Historical Accuracy
Summary: 4 Stars
I first viewed "Wild Bill" because it sounded like a great western, and at the time I was watching DVDs non-stop to help distract my attention from the extreme pain I was experiencing prior to surgery. I must have been more medicated than I remember, as I just watched the movie again, after purchasing it based on the fact that I "remembered" it as being a really terrific and enjoyable western, and I was appalled at the production errors and "historical bunk" in the film. Yet, while I did not enjoy it as much as I "remember" enjoying "Wild Bill," I still think that the film is terrific thanks to some truly memorable performances and crisp direction.
When I compare it to other films out there, and keep a "healthy thought" that "Wild Bill" is a movie about the "Legend" and not the "real, historical person," I find myself wanting to give the film five stars. Beyond a doubt, the film is one of Jeff Bridges finest performances; and the drama and action are awesome.
Then I remember counting the number of times Wild Bill fired his two pistols (which were pron to misfires) in the shoot out in the livery and I cringe. I cannot be certain, since the film does not actually always show Wild Bill's shots (you frequently just hear them, and see their effects), but I got a count of 29 rounds--more than double what he could have realistically fired. Nonetheless, the scene is pure excitement and deepens the "Legend" of Wild Bill. Conversely, I think the director did a marvelous job of editing in the great use of black and white "dreams" that help "recall" Wild Bill's "legendary life."
On the other hand, Charlie Utter, Hickok's friend and life-long companion is denigrated--or so I see it--into John Hurt's completely fictional character Charley Prince, an English gentleman who self proclaims himself, through Prince's narration of "Wild Bill," to be a fellow "drunk and gambler," who has become a "friend" (and traveling companion) to Wild Bill. While the funeral scene is better than many, it still failed to capture the true impact of Wild Bill's death on the community of Deadwood; and Charlie Utter's efforts to give the funeral dignity. Despite the fact that Wild Bill had been in Deadwood only a few days, according to historical accounts nearly every person in the camp--as well as many from elsewhere--attended the funeral; for even on August 3, 1876, it seems that "everyone" knew that a "true legend had come to an end."
Update--1 July 2008: If this review was not helpful to you, I would appreciate learning the reason(s) so I can improve my reviews. My goal is to provide help to potential buyers, not get into any arguments. So, if you only disagree with my opinion, could you please say so in the comments and not indicate that the review was not helpful. Thanks.