Western, like Bitcoin, was pronounced dead many times. It happened quite a lot in 1980s, despite that decade spawning something quite rare in the history of a genre - Young Guns, 1988 film directed by Christopher Cain, which was successful enough to spawn big budget sequel.
Script by John Fusco is based on real events related to Lincoln County War, one of the most violent episodes in the history of Wild West, which have inspired many westerns before, including classics like Arthur Penn’s Left-Handed Gun and Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. The plot is set in Lincoln County, New Mexico where English immigrant John Tunstall (played by Terence Stamp) runs large ranch and gives jobs to wayward youths, offering them decent food, accommodation and fatherly advice. The core group - made of William H. “Billy the Kid” Bonney (played by Emilio Estevez), Josiah Gordon “Doc” Surlock (played by Kiefer Sutherland), Jose Chavez y Chavez (played by Lou Diamond Phillips), Richard “Dick” Brewer (played by Charlie Sheen), “Dirty Steve” Stephens (played by Dermot Mulroney) and Charlie Bowdree (played by Casey Siemaszko) – are known as “Regulators” and put in charge of preventing thefts, even by force of guns by necessary. Kind-hearted Tunstall becomes rich and successful and, as such, threat to business interests of other powerful and more established cattle barons led by ruthless Irish immigrant Lawrence Murphy (played by Jack Palance). He has Tunstall assassinated, but “Regulators” get deputised as law enforcement officers with the help of Tunstall’s friend, lawyer Alexander McSween (played by Terry O’Quinn). They start campaign to track down Tunstall’s killers and bring them to justice, but trigger happy Billy the Kid prefers simple and more direct methods which escalate the conflict into series of increasingly violent ambushes and revenge killings.
Made with relatively decent budget, Young Guns proved quite successful at the box office. That could be best explained with the fact that it was, as the title suggest, clearly intended for young, mainly teen audience. Cast is made of young upcoming stars that are introduced in MTV-style opening, covered with heavy hard rock soundtrack which clearly panders to 1980s musical tastes. Among the cast the most impressive is Emilio Estevez, who gives very interesting portrayal of Billy the Kid as dangerous psychotic with too much enthusiasm for killing and whose only redeeming quality is in deadly gunfighting skills that manage to take his friends out of trouble. Estevez’s brother Charlie Sheen, on the other hand, plays the most level-headed and reasonable member of the group (which is quite ironic, considering how brother turned differently in real life). Kiefer Sutherland is, on the other hand, decent in the role of Doc as quiet, sensitive, poetry-writing member of the group and who also happens to have the only romantic subplot involving Murphy’s Chinese sex slave (played by tragically underused Alice Carter). Lou Diamond Phillips is also good, despite cliches in his token ethnic character who talks his friends into consuming peyote, resulting in probably the most entertaining scene of the film. Mulroney and Siemaszko, on the other hand, work hard but their characters are mostly underwritten. Veteran Jack Palance overacts in the role of insanely evil villain, while Stamp is serviceable as saintly Tunstall.
Fusco’s script was partially praised by Wild West historians for getting some of the details of Lincoln County War, ignored or altered by previous films, right, but, on the other hand, a lot of history was sacrificed for the sake of simplicity and emotionally satisfying drama. That includes infamous Battle of Lincoln, which serves as the convenient (and very violent) ending for the film. Director Christopher Cain is more concerned with action, which is directed with great energy and quick pace. Australian cinematographer Dean Semler, who had number of impressive films in his filmography, doesn’t do remarkable job in Young Guns, because he relies too much on brown and sepia tones. This film is nevertheless a decent and mostly entertaining example of supposedly dying genre. Its success led to Young Guns II, ambitious, critically acclaimed and much darker film which continued the story of Wild West’s legendary outlaw.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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