This movie is brilliant, and like another commenter states, presents what is probably a pretty close approximation of what it was like to be in a tumbleweed nowhere in 1880 or so. Michael J. Pollard is probably best known for his appearance on that Star Trek episode with the Grumps & the kids who never grew old, and by golly if he does not appear to have aged a day between 1967 and 1972, perfectly cast as a "revisionist" presentation of America's most famous juvenile delinquent, Billy the Kid.
After quickly realizing that farming is for the birds, a newly arrived Billy goes trudging into town and winds up in the nowhere's only saloon, which has been more or less commandeered by the local town misfit/wayward punk name Goldie (young Richard Evans, acting like he has snorted one too many Kiddee Whippets), a dimwit who has happened to come into the possession of a six shooter and more or less refuses to leave his place at the bar ... for about a week. As the grown ups (including recognizable faces like Willard Sage and the great Charles Aidman) muddle about in the manure & ankle deep mud outside and try to reason with the oaf, Billy grows more and more fascinated with the sheer power that having a pistol brings to the clueless fool, and over the course of several days becomes a sort of "gofer" for the brute and his likewise power dazed homespun squeeze in the form of the town whore (gorgeous Lee Purcell, who's speech about a cold winter is one of the most effective moments by an actor/actress trying to create the impression that they live in a different time than the viewers).
The three share some thrills, chills and bellyaches (including a trip to the back room for Billy & Ms. Purcell that results in the movie's funniest line, and a truly brutal knife fight following a card game gone bad that costs a supporting actress one of her ears!!) before being coerced into leaving by the threat of violence, leading to tragedy, death and cold blooded murder that happens in a manner that is mundane, unsationalistic, powerful and wounding to watch. You can understand why Billy became the merciless killer of legend after his ordeal, with the film ending on a twisted high note as he & Goldie celebrate his first mass murder of some lowlife scum who are even scummier than Billy & Goldie.
And as other commenter's have noted, the aspect of the film which leaves the biggest impression is how grimy, soiled, unwashed, grungy, muddy, manure-splattered, cold, wet, damp, uncomfortable and inhospitable the movie makes the wild west look, even though the bulk of the film is set inside of this god forsaken, claustrophobic, unkempt and dingy "saloon", which is more like a shack with a couple of hand sawn tables & some crooked chairs that don't seem to sit square on the floor. Everything looks cobbled together, overused, weather beaten and about to fall apart -- There are no Singing Cowboys in this film with rhinestone studded guitars and horses with first names. It is a bleak, dismal and cramped looking film, and yet it is actually rather life affirming to watch and witness Billy changing from a rather slow, half awake schlemiel into a ruthless & calculating gunfighter, wielding a pistol that looks about two sizes too big for him and managing to actually hit his targets with alarming accuracy.
Seek this movie out: I managed to capture a screening off TBS years ago during a Cowboy Matinée Afternoon special or something like that, and while cut for content it's still one of the most effective US made Spaghetti Western influenced "adult" westerns made -- that meaning a film using western themes as it's departure point rather than a Cowboy Movie about Doc & Hoppy riding herd or having shootouts at old corrals. This is a western as post-modernism, using the conventions of the genre to create a new form and managing to do so brilliantly, even while not appearing to have accomplished much at all on initial inspection. And like most films that are more interesting than the hot new garbage media companies expect us to buy, there is no home video release or DVD available, probably having to do with the rights to the film's fascinating musical score, one sequence of which is played entirely by a wind-up bell chime machine as an ingenious Juke Box precursor.
What's even more remarkable is that director Stan Dragoti made exactly five other films during his career, the most recognizable being LOVE AT FIRST BITE with George Hamilton, MR. MOM with Michael Keaton, and the notorious SHE'S OUT OF CONTROL with Tony Danza lusting inappropriately after daughter Ami Dolenz. Maybe not the most sparkling portfolio, but his percentage of masterpieces to movies made is pretty impressive.
***1/2 out of ****
After quickly realizing that farming is for the birds, a newly arrived Billy goes trudging into town and winds up in the nowhere's only saloon, which has been more or less commandeered by the local town misfit/wayward punk name Goldie (young Richard Evans, acting like he has snorted one too many Kiddee Whippets), a dimwit who has happened to come into the possession of a six shooter and more or less refuses to leave his place at the bar ... for about a week. As the grown ups (including recognizable faces like Willard Sage and the great Charles Aidman) muddle about in the manure & ankle deep mud outside and try to reason with the oaf, Billy grows more and more fascinated with the sheer power that having a pistol brings to the clueless fool, and over the course of several days becomes a sort of "gofer" for the brute and his likewise power dazed homespun squeeze in the form of the town whore (gorgeous Lee Purcell, who's speech about a cold winter is one of the most effective moments by an actor/actress trying to create the impression that they live in a different time than the viewers).
The three share some thrills, chills and bellyaches (including a trip to the back room for Billy & Ms. Purcell that results in the movie's funniest line, and a truly brutal knife fight following a card game gone bad that costs a supporting actress one of her ears!!) before being coerced into leaving by the threat of violence, leading to tragedy, death and cold blooded murder that happens in a manner that is mundane, unsationalistic, powerful and wounding to watch. You can understand why Billy became the merciless killer of legend after his ordeal, with the film ending on a twisted high note as he & Goldie celebrate his first mass murder of some lowlife scum who are even scummier than Billy & Goldie.
And as other commenter's have noted, the aspect of the film which leaves the biggest impression is how grimy, soiled, unwashed, grungy, muddy, manure-splattered, cold, wet, damp, uncomfortable and inhospitable the movie makes the wild west look, even though the bulk of the film is set inside of this god forsaken, claustrophobic, unkempt and dingy "saloon", which is more like a shack with a couple of hand sawn tables & some crooked chairs that don't seem to sit square on the floor. Everything looks cobbled together, overused, weather beaten and about to fall apart -- There are no Singing Cowboys in this film with rhinestone studded guitars and horses with first names. It is a bleak, dismal and cramped looking film, and yet it is actually rather life affirming to watch and witness Billy changing from a rather slow, half awake schlemiel into a ruthless & calculating gunfighter, wielding a pistol that looks about two sizes too big for him and managing to actually hit his targets with alarming accuracy.
Seek this movie out: I managed to capture a screening off TBS years ago during a Cowboy Matinée Afternoon special or something like that, and while cut for content it's still one of the most effective US made Spaghetti Western influenced "adult" westerns made -- that meaning a film using western themes as it's departure point rather than a Cowboy Movie about Doc & Hoppy riding herd or having shootouts at old corrals. This is a western as post-modernism, using the conventions of the genre to create a new form and managing to do so brilliantly, even while not appearing to have accomplished much at all on initial inspection. And like most films that are more interesting than the hot new garbage media companies expect us to buy, there is no home video release or DVD available, probably having to do with the rights to the film's fascinating musical score, one sequence of which is played entirely by a wind-up bell chime machine as an ingenious Juke Box precursor.
What's even more remarkable is that director Stan Dragoti made exactly five other films during his career, the most recognizable being LOVE AT FIRST BITE with George Hamilton, MR. MOM with Michael Keaton, and the notorious SHE'S OUT OF CONTROL with Tony Danza lusting inappropriately after daughter Ami Dolenz. Maybe not the most sparkling portfolio, but his percentage of masterpieces to movies made is pretty impressive.
***1/2 out of ****