Synopsis
Biopic about famous gunslinger Wild Bill Hickock. The early career of legendary lawman is telescoped and culminates in his relocation in Deadwood and a reunion with Calamity Jane.
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Cast
- Jeff BridgesWild Bill Hickok
- Ellen BarkinCalamity Jane
- John HurtCharley Prince
- Diane LaneSusannah Moore
- Keith CarradineBuffalo Bill Cody
- David ArquetteJack McCall
- Christina ApplegateLurline Newcomb
- Bruce DernWill Plummer
- James GammonCalifornia Joe
- Marjoe GortnerPreacher
Recommendations
- 75
Washington Post
Hill evokes the great westerns of the past—in particular "Shane" and "My Darling Clementine"— but his approach is essentially postmodern. Though Hickok is a hero from another century, his plight is thoroughly contemporary. - 67
Entertainment Weekly
While Hill’s hallucinatory script — adapted from a novel and a play — is about the dangers of fostering your own myth, the movie fawns over its character’s legend rather than aiming for his murky reality. - 60
Empire
This is a valiant but overcomplicated Western that aims to redraw the lines on Western mythology: with heroes as mere humans, and heroics as distortions of the truth. - 50
Chicago Sun-Times
The movie tries for poetry and elegy in its closing scenes, and we can see where it's headed, although it doesn't get there. - 50
Chicago Reader
The film ultimately comes up short when it has to deal with Hickok as something other than a legend; Hill is hampered as usual by his fixation on iconography. - 50
Los Angeles Times
With “Geronimo,” an honorable effort to right some wrongs done the Apache warrior in past movies, [Hill] seemed stifled by his commitment to history. And in “Wild Bill,” which he wants us to see as a psychological profile of a legend’s final days, he can’t for the life of him let go of the legend. - 40
Austin Chronicle
Despite its authentic feel for things Western, Wild Bill misses the big picture. - 25
San Francisco Chronicle
In the early going "Wild Bill" looks interesting -- an audacious wallow in violence and Western legend. Then 20 minutes in, writer-director Walter Hill puts his cards on the table. It's a dead man's hand.
