My summary comment pretty much describes the way I felt watching this flick. Notwithstanding all the positive comments on this board, I found the film to be ploddingly slow, and virtually devoid of any interest. It didn't help that every scene was filmed in knee deep mud or suffocatingly dark interiors, and as I think about it now, it had the feel of one of those apocalyptic movies set in the far future where the landscape is almost devoid of sunshine or human contact. It didn't seem like there were any humans among the characters here either.
The positive I found after having seen a handful of Billy the Kid pictures, is that this one at least dealt with William Bonney's back story - to an extent. He was born in New York City's Lower East Side in 1859 as Henry McCarty, so seeing his father sign the deed to that ramshackle house in Coffeeville came pretty close to history. However, young Henry's father died BEFORE he and his mother moved West, so the scenes where he challenged the old man were a fabrication. Mrs. McCarty remarried William Antrim after arriving at Silver City, New Mexico, so there again, the scenes with Ben Antrim (Charles Aidman) also had some basis in fact. For his part, McCarty used a whole bunch of aliases once he arrived out West, including the name Antrim and Bill Bonney. It seems that for emphasis, Goldie (Richard Evans) kept calling him 'The Kid'.
As for Michael J. Pollard portraying Billy, maybe not the worst choice, but the way he played Billy was. The character seemed superficially dumbed down, and if this was the real Billy, he wouldn't have lived long enough to become the legend. No street smarts to speak of, he kept walking right into trouble at every turn. In fact, I kept waiting the whole story for Pollard to turn into Billy the Kid, and it happened in the final two minutes of the picture!
Here's something I thought about though. That scene where Dick Van Patten is trying to get his money's worth with Berle (Lee Purcell) was a jolt, but how about that conversation Billy had with Berle later on just before he got HIS chance. Berle states that she came from a family of eight, but she was the only one who survived. Right then and there could have been planted the seeds for a TV series five years later - "Eight is Enough".
The basis for any recommendation here lies in one's interest in the character of Billy the Kid, and a generally realistic approach to the way the grunge of the Old West is presented before electricity and paved roads. Personally though, if there was a smell quotient to this picture, it probably would have been totally unwatchable.
The positive I found after having seen a handful of Billy the Kid pictures, is that this one at least dealt with William Bonney's back story - to an extent. He was born in New York City's Lower East Side in 1859 as Henry McCarty, so seeing his father sign the deed to that ramshackle house in Coffeeville came pretty close to history. However, young Henry's father died BEFORE he and his mother moved West, so the scenes where he challenged the old man were a fabrication. Mrs. McCarty remarried William Antrim after arriving at Silver City, New Mexico, so there again, the scenes with Ben Antrim (Charles Aidman) also had some basis in fact. For his part, McCarty used a whole bunch of aliases once he arrived out West, including the name Antrim and Bill Bonney. It seems that for emphasis, Goldie (Richard Evans) kept calling him 'The Kid'.
As for Michael J. Pollard portraying Billy, maybe not the worst choice, but the way he played Billy was. The character seemed superficially dumbed down, and if this was the real Billy, he wouldn't have lived long enough to become the legend. No street smarts to speak of, he kept walking right into trouble at every turn. In fact, I kept waiting the whole story for Pollard to turn into Billy the Kid, and it happened in the final two minutes of the picture!
Here's something I thought about though. That scene where Dick Van Patten is trying to get his money's worth with Berle (Lee Purcell) was a jolt, but how about that conversation Billy had with Berle later on just before he got HIS chance. Berle states that she came from a family of eight, but she was the only one who survived. Right then and there could have been planted the seeds for a TV series five years later - "Eight is Enough".
The basis for any recommendation here lies in one's interest in the character of Billy the Kid, and a generally realistic approach to the way the grunge of the Old West is presented before electricity and paved roads. Personally though, if there was a smell quotient to this picture, it probably would have been totally unwatchable.