Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"You don't ever touch another man's hat!", June 2, 2005
It is uneven films like 'Wild Bill' that make me wish that Amazon allowed half stars. While it has some outstanding scenes that I would not have missed, and Jeff Bridges deliveres a five star performance in the title role, it hits too many false notes, and as a whole is far too unconvincing to merit four stars. But when it is good, it is very good, and deserves a three and one half star rating.
Jeff Bridges' portrayal of Wild Bill Hickok is simply outstanding. He delivers exactly the right mix of flamboyant swagger, no nonsense toughness, and world weariness to breath life into the legend, and is the primary reason to see this movie. The film's early scenes, where Bridges gets to recreate several pivital episodes of Hickok's legend are superb; had the movie continued in that vein, it would be a classic.
Unfortunately, 'Wild Bill' abandons both the history and legend of James Butler Hickok for the greater part of the movie in favor of its own inovations on the tale that simply fall flat. Most of the story is told in Deadwood, the boom town where Hickok was killed, and it attempts to give explanation and motivation to young Jack McCall's murder of Wild Bill. This is not only unnecessary, as the tale already had a fitting ending (an unbalanced young coward murders a legend hoping to make a name), but destoys the credibility of the film, by adding silly scenes such as McCall and a gang of hired toughs holding Bill and friends hostage in a bar previous to the murder.
The impressive cast, like the movie itself, delivers unevenly. David Arquette does a fair job as the twitchy Jack McCall. Ellen Barkin fails as Calamity Jane - her attempt at acting both rowdy tough and sweetly sexy is about as successful as mixing oil and water. John Hurt plays Charley Prince, an English gentleman who is friend to Wild Bill, and narrates much of the movie; both the charater and the narration seem out of place in the tale. Vetern character actor James Gammon plays California Joe largly through speaking loudly, and is a disappointment. Christina Applegate's role as hard bitten prostitute Lurline is both woodenly acted and utterly superflous to the story. Keith Carradine has a one scene, throw away cameo as Buffalo Bill Cody. Bruce Dern, playing Will Plummer, an angry old man in a wheel chair who calls Wild Bill out, delivers the most entertaining performance in the movie next to Bridges, providing one of the moments that make this film worth seeing despite its many flaws.
Had 'Wild Bill' stuck to the legend rather than inovating, or had it attempted to get behind the legend to the history, this could have been an outstanding movie. The scenes that did stay close to the legend were outstandingly well done, and give a hint of what this film could have been. As is, I would still recommend that you check out 'Wild Bill', but rent, rather than buy.
Theo Logos
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Accurate? Don't know, but Bridges is great., December 7, 1999
Unlike the other reviewers, I can't vouch for the historical accuracy of this film. What I can say, however, is that I thoroughly enjoyed Bridges' portrayal of the rough and tumble Wild Bill. I lost the sense that I was watching an actor at work behind the moustache, twin pistols and gruff mannerisms that Bridges brings to the character. I found the central conflict of a very tough and manly man coming to terms with his own legacy poignant and interesting. I recommend giving it a look-see, and I plan on buying it when it comes out on DVD.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Movie characters behaving like ... characters in a bad movie, November 30, 2005
I popped this disc out with 20 minutes left to go, unable to bear the ludicrous turns of plot. This film started out well enough, with a gritty Western atmosphere and plenty of loud, smoky gunplay as Jeff Bridges' Wild Bill Hickok shoots down men by the roomful. Bridges is a scruffy, perpetually hungover and somehow likable Wild Bill Hickok. He chews the scenery like an out-of-control rock star. It's fun at first, but ultimately his character is hard to care for. That's important, because from the get-go, you know what's coming for Wild Bill at the end. For that reason, the filmmakers' biggest challenge was to make you care for ol' Bill. But Bridges and the scriptwriters fall wide of the mark. (In contrast, Keith Carradine sets the world-weary gunfighter bar high with his portrayal of W.B. in "Deadwood.") Sure, Bridges's Wild Bill is humorous and quirky, but his character does so many outrageous, over-the-top things -- punching, insulting, and generally running roughshod over folks -- that you can't help but think "Oh, he's askin' for it" or "No real gunfighter would do that!" The real Hickock was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall, an no-account drifter who had lost to Hickok in cards. The Jack McCall of this film, however, is out to avenge his mother, a former lover of Hickok's who, her son thinks, was cruelly abandoned by the gunslinger turned professional gambler. But it gets even better: McCall -- SPOILERS AHEAD -- pays a motley crew of lowlifes a sum of one thousand dollars (today worth about, what, a million?) to kill Hickok. They catch him by surprise while he's -- get this -- coupling with Calamity Jane on top of a poker table. (For me, that's when the movie jumped the shark.) But then the bad guys, instead of killing Hickok right there on the spot (which is usually what hired killers do) force him and other residences of his hotel to play poker. Why they did this I never did find out, because that's when the screening of "Wild Bill" was cut short by the eject button. --MellowMonk.com
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