NateWatchesCoolMovies Walter Hill's Wild Bill is the director at his most restrained and esoteric. Usually he leaps out of the gate, guns blazing, characters vividly drawn to the point of thundering archetype and a tight, violent narrative that doesn't stray into vagueness or episodic nature. Wild Bill is the opposite of all that. It chronicles the twilight years of famed and deeply troubled gunslinger Wild Bill Hickock in a loose, foggy fashion, skipping through time and presenting us a fractured narrative in a constant state of disarray, viewed through a prism of Bill's booze addled, regret strewn mind. It's a slow, groggy piece, all sense of showmanship and glory stripped away from his life in favour of an agonizing existence at the end of his road, surrounded by few friends and memories fading along with his legacy. It fades in and out on vignettes here and there, with no continuous or conventional plot line to hitch up its skirts. Jeff Bridges warbles his way through an intensely underrated performance as Bill, a whiskey soaked gent living out his quiet years reminding on the old days, gambling to his broken hearts content and dodging old grudges. He's joined by refined Brit Charley Prince (John Hurt), feisty tomboy Calamity Jane (Ellen Barkin, adorable and full of passion for Bill that he's tragically blind to), and rowdy California Joe (James Gammon). Gammon, now passed away, was a criminally underrated characters actor who had a raspy teddy bear voice (he even played one of the country bears in the movie), and a sweet, gruff disposition that made him mesmerizing in any appearance. His Joe is a nice creation and one of his best roles, a rowdy old boy who livens up Bill's cantankerous gloom. Eventually trouble from his past finds him, in the snivelling form of Jack McCall (David Arquette, in over his head with a Hill film and struggling alongside the rest of the able cast), a disgruntled man who loathes Bill for leaving his mother (Diane Lane, luminous in gorgeous black and white flashbacks) decades before, a chapter of his life he scarcely even remembered until Jack showed up to put a thorn in his side. And so a plan is hatched by him to assassinate Bill, with the hard nosed help of New York lowlife Donnie Lonnigan (Hill regular James Remar, growling perfection). It's a riveting look at the ex gunslinger, anchored by Hill's focused, un characteristically moody approach to the material. Fun facts: Hill would go on to direct the pilot episode for HBO's sensational Deadwood, also partly detailing the curtain call segment of Bill's life, where the role was played by Keith Carradine (who also briefly appears here as Buffalo Bill Cody), and the incomparable Robin Weigert stepping in for Barkin as Jane. Both versions have the goods, this one severely overlooked. One of my favourite westerns, and a campfire style historical tale worth taking a look at.

rusty13252 Out of every movie i have ever seen based on a legendary old west figure this movie was the largest pile of horse s**T i have ever seen.There is not 1/100 of fact base in this film i have spent 25 years of my life researching legendary western figures from Wyatt Earp to the back shooter Pat Garret and believe me they have made some stinkers but this is no doubt the worst pile of lies and misleads i ever saw. I WISH THERE WAS A RATING LESS THEN 1 BECAUSE THIS MOVIE WOULD RATE A - 10.Not to mention very bad acting from second rate actors.Walter Hill directed my favorite movie of all times the 1979 cult classic THE WARRIORS {in which he also used James Remar }so i expected better from him.This movie is a disgrace to a otherwise great director.

Samiam3 Perhaps I love Deadwood too much; the critically praised, HBO series for which director Walter Hill appropriately won an Emmy for the pilot. I clearly set my expectations a little too high of this one, which predates the Deadwood series by eight years or so. Coming from Walter Hill, the man behind the Warriors and The Long Riders, there is no way that Wild Bill should have been this sloppy. His portrayal of the life and death of James Butler Hickok results in a motion picture that self-destructs in spectacular fashion. It is vastly underwritten, poorly acted, edited as if it were a labyrinth of jungle vines to be cut down by a machete, and on top of that the movie is also severely anti-climactic.All that Hill gets right is that parts of the movie are well shot, and he is able to capture the look of the times on screen, but on the pages, it is a different matter. The opening twenty minutes (give or take) are especially excruciating. What we see is almost a joke, totally amateurish and more oriented towards obnoxious gunplay than character illumination. I felt like I was watching kiddies play cowboys and Indians on the street with little wooden pistols. Jeff Bridges portrayal of Hickok is devoid of talent and humanity. It is so obviously a performance, with hammy delivery, poor timing, and failure to capture Bill's misery and self loathing and his love for Calamity Jane.When all is said and done, Wild Bill is a dud. It is clumsy and careless, and is easily one of the worst westerns I have ever seen.

TheUnknown837-1 Wild Bill is a dark, moody Western about the last days of legendary lawman James Butler Hickock that sometimes shows off its true colors (by that, I mean its riveting action sequences, not its appearance) but suffers from a disorganized screenplay, some dull characters, an imperfect running time, and while it's not a bad Western, it's not a great one either.Jeff Bridges gives a noteworthy performance as Wild Bill, John Hurt gives most of the movie's seldom-seen charisma as his friend Charley Prince (I'm not sure if this character is real or not) and then there is a truly great performance by Ellen Barkin as frontierswoman Calamity Jane. In shorter, laconic terms, Wild Bill boasts a great cast and some witty dialogue. Director Walter Hill (who also directed The Long Riders (1980) with the Carradine brothers) does a phenomenal job with the action scenes as well. The killings in this film look harsh and brutal as they in deed were. And the violence is not overdone to the point where it becomes depressing.But like I mentioned earlier, the story is disorganized. There were too many black-and-white flashback scenes, which I've seen many done better many times before in other films, that dragged on and slowed the movie down for me. John Hurt's narration was sometimes effective, sometimes overdrawn. And the pacing was in need of a revision. I'm sure the filmmakers could have worked it out a different way to tell the past of the characters without constantly using flashbacks and could have removed some additional scenes that went into and out of nowhere. Because they unfortunately are the movie's major flaws. They slow it down.Wild Bill, again is not necessarily a bad film. I did mildly enjoy it at times, but it is a very dark motion picture without much point behind itself. The action scenes are good, the acting is great, and the general atmosphere of a dark time in a weary man's life is convincing. But ultimately, Wild Bill is just too slow and kind of a disappointment.