Wild Bill (1995)

Directed by Walter Hill. Starring Jeff Bridges, Ellen Barkin, David Arquette, John Hurt, Diane Lane, James Gammon, Christina Applegate, James Remar, Keith Carradine, Bruce Dern, Stoney Jackson. [R]

Episodic summation of the life of Wild Bill Hickok (Bridges), focusing primarily on his final days in the settlement of Deadwood, with the bitter Jack McCall (Arquette) vowing to kill the famed lawman and gunfighter. Starts with a series of brawls and shootouts and then settles into an elegiac, contemplative state; its revisionist methods, however, are frustrating (even upsetting) since, although candid truth and whispered legend may be fuzzy when it comes to historical record in the Old West, this story diverges egregiously from both. Too much screen time is afforded to McCall and his waffling, leaving Bill no less an enigmatic figure at the end than he was in the beginning; we do know, however, not to ever touch his hat. His relationships with Calamity Jane (Barkin) and Charlie Utter (called “Charley Prince” here for no apparent reason, played by Hurt) are weakly developed/explained. Hill’s tough, straightforward directorial style makes the gun battles visceral, but he’s ill-suited for the opium den dreams, “injun” mysticism, and flashbacks shot in muddy, high-contrast black & white.

40/100