Billy the Kid

source: Billy the Kid

Billy the Kid

Western Movie Fans are not Likely to be Disappointed in this Rowdy Shoot em' Up from 1930. It is a Big Production all around and there is Plenty of Gunplay and Wide Open Spaces, a Large and Scruffy Cast, and a Substantial Running Time. Holding it Back from Greatness are some Stiff Dialog Scenes and a Meandering Script Peppered with Down Home Humor and an Awkward Love Story. But there are Dozens of Deaths by Gunpowder and there are a Few Striking Set Pieces. Billy and the Gang Hold Up and Surrounded in a Cabin, Billy's Capture and Escape from the Lincoln County Jail, and a Cave Dwelling, Starving Billy the Kid forced into the Open by a Pan of Frying Bacon, Among Others. Overall it is a Rip Roaring Western that Helped Johnny Mack Brown stay a Star and it also didn't Hurt Wallace Berry's Career as He Plays a Rather Subdued Pat Garrett.

Another very early talkie western, King Vidor's version of the story of Billy the Kid. It was a big production, filmed on location. The landscapes look great. Apparently, it was also filmed in widescreen version, but that has unfortunately been lost. The storytelling is mostly gritty, although interspaced with comic relief scenes with the supporting cast and some singing. I found the combination strange, but it did not prevent me from enjoying the movie. The two male leads do a good job, although Johnny Mack Brown, who plays Billy the Kid, is not really a kid here, but a grown man. I particularly enjoyed Wallace Beery's performance as an understated, surprisingly good-natured Pat Garrett. Kay Johnson is not given much to do, since the romance is rather routinary The Kid had a nice badass moment when he lights a cigarette from the collapsed burning rafters of the roof. Quite entertaining, and without the stilted interpretations that some of the early talkies have.

In the tradition of Hollywood this version of the saga of Billy The Kid is as false as many others were including some more modern versions purported to be the real story. In fact this has one truly radical change I won't reveal. Johnny Mack Brown who would shortly find his career niche in B westerns is William Bonney. Pat Garrett is played by Wallace Beery who plays it a bit more straight forward without the usual mugging for the camera. Some of the other characters from the Lincoln County War are here as well. Kay Johnson supplies the love interest who tries to keep Bill Bonney on the straight and narrow. This Billy The Kid is a decent western and does credit to both of its leads.

By the time King Vidor directed this "Billy the Kid," he already had 36 movies under his belt (most of them silent), so it's weird that the movie seems so arbitrarily thrown together. Brutality and tenderness each try to crowd the other out. Somebody dies, and minutes later everyone's smiling again. I think the Western/Cowboy genre was still developing in Hollywood at the time (even after all those silent Westerns), and the addition of sound just threw another monkey wrench into the works. Nevertheless, you can tick off all the Western conventions and clichés as the film unfolds; they're all there. But it's like they're on steroids or something -- you never know when they're going to take on a life of their own. They just don't add up. I'm tempted to give this movie an "8" rating just for its consummate strangeness, but I think a "6" is probably a fairer assessment.

This film was full of surprises for me, given its less-than-stellar reputation. One has to view it in terms of Hollywood myth-making and not as if it's an episode of `Biography.' King Vidor's camerawork is startlingly fluid - he uses camera movement and cutting very effectively. One of the biggest surprises was the brutality (not to be confused with gore) of certain scenes. The film also does an excellent job of creating a mood of futility. As for Johnny Mack Brown, at first I thought he was inappropriately cast. But as the movie continued, his characterization seemed more valid. And of course, the location shots are stunning. This film is underrated and overdue for critical re-evaluation. Perhaps that will happen if an archivist finds a widescreen print!