Review of Young Guns (1988) by Stuart K — 08 May 2012

Made at a time when not many people made westerns, written by John Fusco (Loch Ness (1996) and Hidalgo (2004), this one had the ace up it's sleeve of having some of the Brat Pack leading the cast. It proved to be a winning combination by placing them in the old west.

It's a good adventure mixing fact and the mythology of the old west with the attitude of the 80's youth movies. Set in the 1870's, it has English cattle rancher John Tunstall (Terence Stamp) employing wayward delinquent gunmen on his ranch, but he has competition from rival rancher Lawrence Murphy (Jack Palance), who taunts Tunstall with violence, resulting in murder.

With that, Tunstall's employees Billy (Emilio Estevez), Doc Scurlock (Kiefer Sutherland), Jose Chavez y Chavez (Lou Diamond Phillips), Richard M. "Dick" Brewer (Charlie Sheen), "Dirty" Steve Stephens (Dermot Mulroney), and Charlie Bowdre (Casey Siemaszko) go off seeking vengeance against Murphy and his men, but it's not long before their activities bring attention, and they're being hunted down, and with Billy leading the gang, he becomes known as Billy the Kid.

It's a good western with a good rock soundtrack by Brian Banks and Anthony Marinelli. The cast play off each other well, while Palance makes a good baddie, (sort of a run before City Slickers.) It has good action and everything you'd expect from a Brat Pack film as well.