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Wild Bill [DVD] [1996]

DVD ~ Jeff Bridges

2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Product details

Actors: Jeff Bridges, Ellen Barkin, John Hurt, Diane Lane, Keith Carradine
Directors: Walter Hill
Writers: Walter Hill, Peter Dexter, Thomas Babe
Producers: Gary Daigler, Lili Fini Zanuck, Richard D. Zanuck
Format: PAL
Language English
Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
Number of discs: 1
Classification: 15
Studio: MGM Entertainment
DVD Release Date: 1 Mar 2004
Run Time: 94 minutes

Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

ASIN: B00015N59C
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 17,469 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

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

Synopsis

Director Walter Hill's WILD BILL is a film biography of legendary outlaw James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok (Jeff Bridges). The story covers the major events that shaped the gunman's life, including his work as a Kansas lawman, his stint in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, and his part-time relationship with a whip-wielding Calamity Jane (Ellen Barkin). In addition, the film shows how Hickok gained his deadly reputation, as well as his repeated confrontations with a vengeful young killer named Jack McCall (David Arquette), whose mother was wronged by Hickok years back--and who may or may not be Hickok's own son. WILD BILL, which unusually focuses less on the legend and more on the real man, features Keith Carradine as Buffalo Bill.

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews

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3 star:		(2)
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Average Customer Review

2.9 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great performance pity about the story, 15 Sep 2006

By	P. Jenkins - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

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28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Once again, Hollywood forgoes the truth and films the legen, 24 Feb 2005

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

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 fifth card was supposedly either the deuce of spades or the jack of diamonds). 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 admitted his brother had not been killed by Wild Bill and 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, who ironically has provided his own memorable performance as Wild Bill in HBO's "Deadwood"). 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.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Jeff Bridges is good in everything, 4 May 2005

By	JJ (Scotland) - See all my reviews

It would have been better not have have watched the TV series of Deadwood before seeing this as you can't help but compare. Still it is suitably dark and dirty looking and a fairly enjoyable way to spend an evening (if you were doing nothing special). And Jeff Bridges is always worth the rental fee.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars 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 12 months ago by J. M. Moore

2.0 out of 5 stars 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 22 months ago by A. Taylor

3.0 out of 5 stars Ironic
Some reviewers seem to subscribe to the Alanis Morrisette definition of irony. Coindcidence does not equal irony. Damn Yanks.

Published 23 months ago by Mark C. Grassick

1.0 out of 5 stars 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

Published on 19 Sep 2007 by Gareth Martin

4.0 out of 5 stars 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

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