American Myth - Young Guns (1988)

"I'll make you famous."

Young Guns (and its sequel, Young Guns II) was one of my favorite movies growing up. I remember going to the library to read about Billy the Kid because of this movie. And from that, I spun off into a deep love of the old west. I read everything I could find in my local library on gunfighters, lawmen, and cowboys. I hadn't seen the movie in years, before I sat down to watch it for this series. I inserted the DVD with more than a little trepidation: what if this movie actually sucked? What if my world was colored with the rose-tinted lenses of youth and nostalgia? Well, lacking any real options for a western from the 80s (if the seventies was bad for the genre, the eighties was worse), and more than a little curious, I pressed play.

Summary:

John Tunstall runs a ranch that doubles as a home for wayward boys. He takes them in, feeds, them, gives them work, and educates them. When Tunstall is murdered by a rival, a grand tale of vengeance is kicked off, that would later come to be known as the Lincoln County War. Tunstall's band of Regulators would cut a swath of blood and violence through the old west in the name of their benefactor. And launch the career of one of the most infamous of American legends: Billy the Kid.

Pros:

Great Leads: There's a reason all of the leads would go on to have great Hollywood careers: they are excellent together on screen. Emilio Estevez is an inspired choice to play Billy: his charm and charisma help the audience root for a character who is, in fact, little more than a murderer himself. Kiefer Sutherland roots the gang with a soulful, kind-hearted turn as Doc. Lou Diamond Phillips gets a stirring monologue about the brutal murder of his people, and sells it with great pathos. You grow to care about this gang of ruffians because they work so well together. If you are touched, at all, at the final shoot out, it is because of the work of the actors.

Fun Shoot Outs: When you see a western, you want shoot outs. Young Guns delivers some fun, chaotic shoot outs. Come on, Billy emerging from a steam trunk previously thrown out a window, and letting loose with his six-shooters is a lot of fun. Even if it is ridiculous.

A Fairly Accurate Portrait of An Interesting Historical Event: The Lincoln County War is infamous, and never really got a fair shake in Hollywood. Leave it to a silly 80s western to actually offer a decent portrayal of it on screen. Now, the film DOES take some liberties (certain characters don't die when they die on screen, and certain embellishments are on display), but, overall, the movie delivered the broadstrokes of the conflict fairly faithfully. I know this because I did a massive amount of research as a kid. Any movie that inspires someone to go rooting around America's dustbin of history is worth a little bit of its salt, I think.

The Papers and Dime Novels: I liked that the characters are constantly reading about themselves in the papers. Billy is building his legacy, and even begins to inflate it: at one point he asks Doc, after killing a man in a bar, how high his body count is. Billy guesses 25. Doc notes that it is more like five. Billy settles on 10. Throughout the film, the boys are constantly reading about themselves in the press, and, initially, they are having a ball with it. It is only when the paper starts reporting egregious errors, and starts discussing how the boys will be hanged when they are caught, that the fun melts away. Young Guns shows us how the reporting of the day made men into myths, and exasperated conflicts by inflating the egos of all involved. It is an underdeveloped theme, but a fun addition.

Cons:

Billy's Legacy: Billy the Kid is one of the most infamous personalities of the American West. By most accounts he was a down-and-dirty murderer, and most likely a psychopath. Young Guns struggles to come to terms with that legacy. They did right by casting Emilio Estevez, who plays Billy with aplomb, but the script is never really sure whether or not Billy is a hero or a villain. Estevez cavorts around the screen, laughing with sadistic glee as he outright murders members of Murphy's (Jack Pallance) gang, but the script tries its best to hand-wave that away with monologues about the little guy fighting the big guy, and a misplaced sense of honor. I think the more compelling movie would have been to play up Billy as a blunt instrument: a kind of monster necessary to fight monsters, but one that inspires unease. Loyalty out of fear is different than loyalty from friendship. I would have liked the film to address that a bit more.

The Eighties!: The film is very much a pop 80s piece. This is reflected in multiple characters bearing beautiful feathered hair dos, and that borderline silly soundtrack. Look, Lou Diamond Phillips and Kiefer Sutherland are handsome men, but no cowboy in his right mind (or the right time period) would have worn hair like that. And it is hard to take a scene of men being chased on horseback with murderous intent seriously with blaring saxophones and twangy synths roaring in the background.

Limited Budget: It is possible for a film with a limited budget to rise above its station, aim for the stars, and create something beautiful out of necessity. Young Guns doesn't quite pull this off. It is clear that they had ONE town set, and this makes for some unintentionally hilarious scenes: Billy and the gang are hiding behind a wall, literally across the street from the Murphy gang, while they read a newspaper about how wanted, i.e. in a vast amount of danger, they are. Like, get the fuck out of town, guys.

Too Long: Even at 107 minutes, the film feels too long. It drags down in the middle, when it should be buoyed by the gang's hunt for vengeance. I appreciated the character moments and the attempts at injecting heart into the story, but some of that could easily have been left on the cutting room floor, and made the film a lean, if slightly silly, actioner.

In Conclusion:

Look, this movie isn't amazing. It is fun. It is a little overstuffed and underdeveloped, but it does give The Lincoln County War a fair shake, and pads itself with some decent performances from its leads. I chose this film because the 80s was a time seriously lacking in decent westerns: Peckinpah had well and truly delivered a killing blow to the genre, and the gritty realism of seventies cinema sealed the deal. Were there westerns made in the 80s? Yeah, but Young Guns made money, got itself a sequel, and I owned it on DVD, after a childhood obsession. If I was going to sit down and watch something from the 80s, I figured I would at least have some fun doing it. I wasn't going to subject myself to the infamous 1980 flop, Heaven's Gate, right? No thanks. I'll take Emilio Estevez any day of the week.

Should You Watch It?

Probably not. Its place on this list is little more than a necessity born of a set of rules I set for myself (one film from each decade), than its legacy as a "classic western." If you like 80s movies, give it a whirl, but, otherwise, you don't really need to bother.

Miscellany:

- John Tunstall, played here by Terence Stamp, was actually only 24 years old when he was murdered.

- None of the fight scenes in this movie were choreographed: they were improvised.
- After filming, the actors would get together, play music, and sing. They forced Lou Diamond Phillips to play "La Bamba," after his portrayal of Ritchie Valens in 1987's La Bamba.
- During the final shoot out, when he wasn't filming, Emilio Estevez dressed up in a different costume, and played one of the bad guys fighting against the Regulators.
- Dialogue from the film was sampled in the infamous 1994 song, "Regulators," by Warren G. and Nate Dogg. 
- The film portrays the Regulators as a six-man outfit, when, historically, it was 11. In fact, the core of the group was something like 11, while 30-some men actually fought as Regulators for Tunstall in the conflict.
- James Horner wrote the original score for the film, but it was canned by director, Christopher Cain. He wanted a more traditional western score. I am confused, because that is NOT what he got.
- The movie was a box office hit, scoring a domestic take of $45 million dollars, on an $11 million budget.
- The film currently holds a 42% score on Rotten Tomatoes, has not been selected for preservation by the National Registry, and appears nowhere on AFI's top western lists. Sad.