Review of Wild Bill (1995) by Tonypolito — 18 Aug 2010

When these actors talk about being in Deadwood, well, they really mean it.

Director Walter Hill, without apology, rips off the opium-den flashback motif from Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" to spin off Wild Bill Hickock's memories of his past, just as he's stepping up to the fateful day he's dealt his Aces & Eights.

Hill crams all the shoot-em-ups into a 30-minute Act 1, setting the hook deep in the viewer's lip. And with very good reason since, after that point, there's little more than scene after scene where cowfolk point a lot of shaky gun barrels at each other (but never pull any triggers) while they carry on with tons of endless uninteresting and supposedly threatening dialogue, that mostly delivered in overly-hammy nearly unintelligible cornpone accents.

Then Bill gets shot, a woman screams, go to black, run end credits over a burial scene. Fin.

Hill's post-production resuscitation attempt was to apply bleached-stock, sepia-toning and angled-camera treatments to the flashback scenes. I guess they still teach that in film school.

Ellen Barkin's eternally hot, but she's still not anywhere near enough pony to pull this wagon. The best delivery here is actually John Hurt, since his stature as an formally trained actor scored him a pass on the country-bumpkin talk imposed on everyone else, and so he gets to go with his usual formal British treatment.

RECOMMENDATION: Unless you crave seeing Jeff Bridges in a really long, greasy, stringy wig, take a pass.