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Amazon.co.uk Review
Audiences overlooked Wild Bill at the cinema, but it's one of the better Westerns of the 1990s, featuring yet another terrific performance by Jeff Bridges, America's most underrated movie actor. As James Butler Hickock, he captures the sense of a man at the end of his career, one of the first media superstars who discovers that his legend is more burden than blessing. As he heads toward his final hand of poker in Deadwood, South Dakota, he flashes back to his younger days and the events that built his reputation, even as he copes with encroaching blindness caused by syphilis.
Walter Hill blends action and elegy, utilising a screenplay based both on Pete Dexter's novel Deadwood and Thomas Babe's play Fathers and Sons. Wild Bill features strong supporting performances by John Hurt (as a Hickock sidekick) and Ellen Barkin (as the tough, lusty Calamity Jane)--but the centrepiece is the sad, manly performance by Bridges, who more than measures up to the part. --Marshall Fine
Product Description
durante il funerale di james butler "wild bill" hickok (j. bridges) l'avventuriero inglese charley prince (j. hurt) racconta la sua storia: stragi, duelli, solitudine, malattia (glaucoma incurabile a un occhio), l'amore per calamity jane (e. barkin), il ricordo della sedotta e abbandonata susannah moore (d. lane), l'incontro con suo figlio (d. arquette) che lo uccide con un colpo alla nuca. non esiste una verita' su hickok, ma soltanto storie.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
That is not to say that Wild Bill is not a very good film. It starts off as an entertaining look at the life and times of Wild Bill Hickok from a factual point of view. It then changes track and introduces a fictional story about his eventual killer being the son of a woman that he once loved and looks at the relationship between Wild Bill and his killer.
The film kicks off showing some of Hickok's gunfights and how he obtained his reputation. These are beautifully directed by Walter Hill, with great attention to detail - showing the gunfights exactly how they were suppossed to have happened.
It then shows Hickok as a man troubled with his past and looking at a bleak future, with the impending loss of his vision. Up until this point the film stays very true to the facts, giving an accurate and entertaining portrayal of Hickok and his life and times. Bridges is amazing in the role of Hickok, looking exactly like old pictures of Wild Bill and conveying the man as a killer, but living by his own set of rules. As I have mentioned, the Director Hill also deserves great credit for showing the Old West with amazing realism, grubby muddy steets, dimly lit bars etc.
The film then chages track as soon as his eventual murderer appears in the film, Jack McCall. Historic fact then goes out the window and shows McCall telling Hickok on numerous occassions that he is going to kill him, and, having cornered Wild Bill with men who also want Hickok dead, they all decide they are not able to shoot him. Later McCall eventually shoots Wild Bill in the back of the head, after Hickok generously offers him this view of himself, despite his stated intention to kill him.
That is not to say that the film is not entertaining, as it has some amazing set piece gunfights and captures the feel of the times perfectly. I just wish the writer had decided to stick to the factual story of Hickok, which would of been even more entertaining than the fiction.
The film kicks off showing some of Hickok's gunfights and how he obtained his reputation. These are beautifully directed by Walter Hill, with great attention to detail - showing the gunfights exactly how they were suppossed to have happened.
It then shows Hickok as a man troubled with his past and looking at a bleak future, with the impending loss of his vision. Up until this point the film stays very true to the facts, giving an accurate and entertaining portrayal of Hickok and his life and times. Bridges is amazing in the role of Hickok, looking exactly like old pictures of Wild Bill and conveying the man as a killer, but living by his own set of rules. As I have mentioned, the Director Hill also deserves great credit for showing the Old West with amazing realism, grubby muddy steets, dimly lit bars etc.
The film then chages track as soon as his eventual murderer appears in the film, Jack McCall. Historic fact then goes out the window and shows McCall telling Hickok on numerous occassions that he is going to kill him, and, having cornered Wild Bill with men who also want Hickok dead, they all decide they are not able to shoot him. Later McCall eventually shoots Wild Bill in the back of the head, after Hickok generously offers him this view of himself, despite his stated intention to kill him.
That is not to say that the film is not entertaining, as it has some amazing set piece gunfights and captures the feel of the times perfectly. I just wish the writer had decided to stick to the factual story of Hickok, which would of been even more entertaining than the fiction.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I'd love to see a really good film about Bill Hickok's life, there's a brilliant snippet from HBO's Deadwood and then there's this film.
Jeff Bridges plays Bill very well and with all the human qualities that you'd expect in a character such as this, and it's just such a shame that the story is firstly all over the place & secondly half made up.
This isn't a long film & the use of flashbacks does help in building up the character & plot in a short space of time but some are out of context & others are just fiction to help along an none existing story line involving Jack McCall.
This is the death nail in my opinion for this film, it seems that the writers didn't think that Jack's part was big enough & just plucked stuff from thin air, the scene in the saloon when Jack & his 'hired guns' sit around with Bill then leave (WTF is that waste of time about) resulting in throwing in a last gun fight and dragging out the obvious ending, time which I think could of been better used filling in Bill's back story in more detail.
I give this film an extra star for Jeff's acting & nothing more.
Jeff Bridges plays Bill very well and with all the human qualities that you'd expect in a character such as this, and it's just such a shame that the story is firstly all over the place & secondly half made up.
This isn't a long film & the use of flashbacks does help in building up the character & plot in a short space of time but some are out of context & others are just fiction to help along an none existing story line involving Jack McCall.
This is the death nail in my opinion for this film, it seems that the writers didn't think that Jack's part was big enough & just plucked stuff from thin air, the scene in the saloon when Jack & his 'hired guns' sit around with Bill then leave (WTF is that waste of time about) resulting in throwing in a last gun fight and dragging out the obvious ending, time which I think could of been better used filling in Bill's back story in more detail.
I give this film an extra star for Jeff's acting & nothing more.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
There were times when it seemed like Walter Hill was on a one man revival crusade for the western. Just when the genre was supposed to be dead he made "The Long Riders"(80) followed later by "Geronimo:An American Legend"(93), then the TV series "Deadwood"(04) and the big budget mini TV series "Broken Trail"(06). All very strong westerns it should be added. In 1995 he made what is perhaps his one western dud "Wild Bill", although even that has it's moments. Based very loosely on the life of the famous western gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok, the film is set largely in Deadwood, where Hickok finally met his maker, but with many black and white flashbacks of his past deeds and misdeeds. The final denouement is a complete reworking of real life events.
Let's get the likes sorted out first. Jeff Bridges makes a very convincing Hickok, both in physical resemblence and in his mannerisms which capture the times and the violent world that these gunmen inhabited. I was also very impressed with the costumes, sets and background music which all picked up the period feel beautifully. That about covers the likes. On the down side the film was not really long enough to flesh out Hickok's character, and completely lacked a coherent plot. It was simply enough to know he was a doomed man. No relationships were really developed and the film consisted of lots of excerpts from Hickok's life without throwing any light on the man himself, and what made him tick. Hill was able to develop his ideas far more when he made his superb TV series "Deadwood". With time to develop characters he was able to show what might have been with "Wild Bill". The film featured a brief, but mildly amusing cameo by Bruce Dern as a wheelchair bound gunslinger, and Keith Carradine as Buffalo Bill. Carradine was to swap roles in "Deadwood" when he got to play Hickok. The overall effect of the movie is as if shooting was suddenly halted and Hill was asked to make a film out of what was left. The current Amazon rating of three stars is spot on. What should have been so much more simply becomes another very average western.
Let's get the likes sorted out first. Jeff Bridges makes a very convincing Hickok, both in physical resemblence and in his mannerisms which capture the times and the violent world that these gunmen inhabited. I was also very impressed with the costumes, sets and background music which all picked up the period feel beautifully. That about covers the likes. On the down side the film was not really long enough to flesh out Hickok's character, and completely lacked a coherent plot. It was simply enough to know he was a doomed man. No relationships were really developed and the film consisted of lots of excerpts from Hickok's life without throwing any light on the man himself, and what made him tick. Hill was able to develop his ideas far more when he made his superb TV series "Deadwood". With time to develop characters he was able to show what might have been with "Wild Bill". The film featured a brief, but mildly amusing cameo by Bruce Dern as a wheelchair bound gunslinger, and Keith Carradine as Buffalo Bill. Carradine was to swap roles in "Deadwood" when he got to play Hickok. The overall effect of the movie is as if shooting was suddenly halted and Hill was asked to make a film out of what was left. The current Amazon rating of three stars is spot on. What should have been so much more simply becomes another very average western.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A curate's egg of a film
I enjoyed some of this film but deplored the casting of the female lead - soooo 20th century!!
Not as good as it could have been.
Not as good as it could have been.
Published 5 months ago by Paul Morris
wild bill dvd
Wild Bill [1995] wild bill! what is so wild about this dvd nothing really. Jeff Bridges plays wild bill rather well. the beginning of the dvd starts off really well. Read more
Published on 1 Nov 2008 by J. M. Moore
A Viewers View
Excellent acting, scenery is first class and what dialog there is comes across as in period. But, as entertainment value this is rubbish, save your money and time and watch... Read more
Published on 28 Dec 2007 by A. Taylor
Ironic
Some reviewers seem to subscribe to the Alanis Morrisette definition of irony. Coindcidence does not equal irony. Damn Yanks.
Published on 13 Dec 2007 by Mark C. Grassick
What a turkey
Leaving aside the shameless Hollywood hackery inflicted on a good true story.....
Leaving aside the woeful mis-casting of Ellen Barkin as Calamity Jane... Read more
Leaving aside the woeful mis-casting of Ellen Barkin as Calamity Jane... Read more
Published on 19 Sep 2007 by Gareth Martin
Short and Sweet-just remember it's a Film?
Nice to see the Wild West portrayed as it surely was and as I've seen it in numerous books - dismal and dirty with water sodden tracks for Main streets and filthy looking bars... Read more
Published on 27 May 2007 by Inmi Opinion
Jeff Bridges is good in everything
It would have been better not have have watched the TV series of Deadwood before seeing this as you can't help but compare. Read more
Published on 4 May 2005 by JJ
Once again, Hollywood forgoes the truth and films the legen
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 (both black: the... Read more
Published on 24 Feb 2005 by Lawrance M. Bernabo
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