The first time I watched "Young Guns", in the early 1990's, it impressed me. It was like watching the cool kids of the wild west making up the rules as they went. With the cast that the film brought there was a rat-pack/brat-pack feel to it too with the likes of Estevez, Sheen, and Sutherland in it. Re-watching the film as a more 'mature' audience (rather than a teenager), some of that rule-breaking cool that the characters brought then, in particularly Estevez's William H. Bonney (a.k.a. Billy the Kid), now seems less cool, and more petulant and annoying. I will get into that some more later though.
The film starts off with Terence Stamp's John Tunstall and Kiefer Sutherland's Doc Scurlock picking up a bad-boy runaway, Estevez's Billy the Kid. Tunstall gives a home, education, and purpose to outcasts that aren't necessarily friends of the law. When Billy joins up, Tunstall already has a 6-man posse of riff-raff on his staff. When the kids aren't helping around the farm they are regulating, and they "regulate any stealing of his property" (I'm not quoting Warren G's anthem, the G-man samples the film in his "Regulators" song). So basically, the kids aren't just there to work the farm and learn a purpose, they are hired guns and muscles that can protect Tunstall and his interests. When Tunstall is gunned down by Lawrence Murphy's gang, who Tunstall has been in competition with, the 'young guns' are begrudgingly deputized in order to bring the outlaws responsible to justice. Unfortunately, the west is still wild, and as the roam Lincoln County in New Mexico, not all the young guns have the same idea of justice. "Dick" (Sheen) wants to arrest the responsible outlaws, while Billy's justice is execution. This puts the gang on the wrong side of the law and end up being wanted men - so they make a run for it. Again, not everybody is happy with doing a runner, especially when vengeance for Tunstall and their friends hasn't been served properly.
The casting for this film was eye-candy to 80's audiences. Most of the main stars had been in big hits before they were assembled in this western action film. They all do a decent job in delivering their performances, and for the most part I do not have much beef. One of the things I did have a slight issue with is that they were all supposed to be under the age of 20-years. This however is Hollywood of the 1980's and quite often audiences were told somebody was a teen, even when they had 5-o'clock shadow and crow's feet.
The standout among the group is Emilio Estevez in the starring role of Billy the Kid. As a teenager watching this film, I thought he was cool and always seemed to push the boundaries of what was acceptable. As a much older viewer nowadays, my opinions have changes slightly. These days the character would warrant a slap and be sent to bed with no supper. The choices he made constantly got the group into trouble, and in some instances, it got them dead too. This is the wild west though - and from reviews and studies I have read there seemed to be a lot of historical accuracy in the performances and characters.
Some reviews have suggested that the way this film played out was closer to what happened in the Lincoln County War than other films before it, the notable exception is the John Wayne film "Chisum" from 1970. In fact, some commentators have said that, with how accurate the characters were to real-life in "Young Guns", only the addition of a John Chisum character could have made it more authentic. Despite the plaudits the film got about certain historical element it got right, the film still plays fast and loose with other historical accuracies. Let's face it though - this is entertainment and not a documentary, there has to be some Hollywood embellishment here or it might not have appealed to the box office and grossed the $56 million that it did. Because of its success, despite how the film ends and the narration that mentions Billy the Kid's eventual demise, 1990 brought audiences a sequel in the form of the creatively titled "Young Guns 2".
From a technical point of view the film revamps and updates some of the more traditional elements you would expect to see in a classic western film. Camera work is good and there are some nice scenes shown. Some of the post-production and editing is a little cheesy, especially the end with the number of slow-motion shots that are played out - but its still fun. The wardrobe department did well to make the kids look cool but authentic too. And music, decent enough although its modernised a lot so make this the rock-and-roll version of a western films.
"Young Guns" as a whole is a fairly enjoyable film which has a decent pace and features some fun performances. It isn't going to be something that everybody enjoys, but it is good pulp-fiction to western fans. It is a buddy-road movie in a western style which is very much "ride of die", and "pals stick together like family". There have been better westerns in the past, better western films came after this too - but as a contribution from the 1980's, this is a decent enough entry with plenty of fun and 80's feels to it. If the likes of "Rooster Cogburn" (1975) is an acoustic guitar, and "A Fistful of Dollars" is a jazz trumpet, then "Young Guns" is definitely a 1980's flying-V heavy metal guitar with amps turned up to fuzz and crackle. But just like hair-metal of the 80's, this film isn't as fresh as it once was to me.
The film starts off with Terence Stamp's John Tunstall and Kiefer Sutherland's Doc Scurlock picking up a bad-boy runaway, Estevez's Billy the Kid. Tunstall gives a home, education, and purpose to outcasts that aren't necessarily friends of the law. When Billy joins up, Tunstall already has a 6-man posse of riff-raff on his staff. When the kids aren't helping around the farm they are regulating, and they "regulate any stealing of his property" (I'm not quoting Warren G's anthem, the G-man samples the film in his "Regulators" song). So basically, the kids aren't just there to work the farm and learn a purpose, they are hired guns and muscles that can protect Tunstall and his interests. When Tunstall is gunned down by Lawrence Murphy's gang, who Tunstall has been in competition with, the 'young guns' are begrudgingly deputized in order to bring the outlaws responsible to justice. Unfortunately, the west is still wild, and as the roam Lincoln County in New Mexico, not all the young guns have the same idea of justice. "Dick" (Sheen) wants to arrest the responsible outlaws, while Billy's justice is execution. This puts the gang on the wrong side of the law and end up being wanted men - so they make a run for it. Again, not everybody is happy with doing a runner, especially when vengeance for Tunstall and their friends hasn't been served properly.
The casting for this film was eye-candy to 80's audiences. Most of the main stars had been in big hits before they were assembled in this western action film. They all do a decent job in delivering their performances, and for the most part I do not have much beef. One of the things I did have a slight issue with is that they were all supposed to be under the age of 20-years. This however is Hollywood of the 1980's and quite often audiences were told somebody was a teen, even when they had 5-o'clock shadow and crow's feet.
The standout among the group is Emilio Estevez in the starring role of Billy the Kid. As a teenager watching this film, I thought he was cool and always seemed to push the boundaries of what was acceptable. As a much older viewer nowadays, my opinions have changes slightly. These days the character would warrant a slap and be sent to bed with no supper. The choices he made constantly got the group into trouble, and in some instances, it got them dead too. This is the wild west though - and from reviews and studies I have read there seemed to be a lot of historical accuracy in the performances and characters.
Some reviews have suggested that the way this film played out was closer to what happened in the Lincoln County War than other films before it, the notable exception is the John Wayne film "Chisum" from 1970. In fact, some commentators have said that, with how accurate the characters were to real-life in "Young Guns", only the addition of a John Chisum character could have made it more authentic. Despite the plaudits the film got about certain historical element it got right, the film still plays fast and loose with other historical accuracies. Let's face it though - this is entertainment and not a documentary, there has to be some Hollywood embellishment here or it might not have appealed to the box office and grossed the $56 million that it did. Because of its success, despite how the film ends and the narration that mentions Billy the Kid's eventual demise, 1990 brought audiences a sequel in the form of the creatively titled "Young Guns 2".
From a technical point of view the film revamps and updates some of the more traditional elements you would expect to see in a classic western film. Camera work is good and there are some nice scenes shown. Some of the post-production and editing is a little cheesy, especially the end with the number of slow-motion shots that are played out - but its still fun. The wardrobe department did well to make the kids look cool but authentic too. And music, decent enough although its modernised a lot so make this the rock-and-roll version of a western films.
"Young Guns" as a whole is a fairly enjoyable film which has a decent pace and features some fun performances. It isn't going to be something that everybody enjoys, but it is good pulp-fiction to western fans. It is a buddy-road movie in a western style which is very much "ride of die", and "pals stick together like family". There have been better westerns in the past, better western films came after this too - but as a contribution from the 1980's, this is a decent enough entry with plenty of fun and 80's feels to it. If the likes of "Rooster Cogburn" (1975) is an acoustic guitar, and "A Fistful of Dollars" is a jazz trumpet, then "Young Guns" is definitely a 1980's flying-V heavy metal guitar with amps turned up to fuzz and crackle. But just like hair-metal of the 80's, this film isn't as fresh as it once was to me.