Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid

• Director: William A. Graham
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Western
• Movie Type: Psychological Western
• Themes: Sheriffs and Outlaws, Faltering Friendships
• Main Cast: Val Kilmer, Duncan Regehr
• Release Year: 1989
• Country: US
• Run Time: 100 minutes

Plot

Gore Vidal's 1955 TV play and 1958 film The Left-Handed Gun discreetly explored the hitherto untapped homosexual subtext in the saga of gunslinger Billy the Kid. Vidal's 1989 reworking of the same material, the made-for-cable Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid, is just as discreet, but no less top-heavy with 20th-century psychoanalysis. In relating the tale of New Mexico Territory outlaw William H. Bonney, Vidal once again postulates that Billy (described as a "homicidal moron" by one less sentimentally inclined historian) was a misunderstood kid who fell in with bad company. Val Kilmer, on the verge of bigger things, stars as Billy, while Duncan Regehr portrays sheriff Pat Garrett, the Kid's onetime crony and ultimate executioner. Gore Vidal himself shows up in a bit as a minister. "Pursued by his enemies, betrayed by his friends, ruled by his passions" read the ad copy when Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid premiered over the TNT Cable Channel on May 10, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast

René Auberjonois; Wilford Brimley - Governor Lew Wallace; Julie Carmen - Celsa; Tom Everett; Val Kilmer - William Bonney; Dianne Reeves; Duncan Regehr - Pat Garrett; Albert Salmi; Ned Vaughn; Michael Parks; Gore Vidal

Credit

William A. Graham - Director, Laurence Rosenthal - Composer (Music Score), Dennis C. Lewiston - Cinematographer, Gore Vidal - Screenwriter

Similar Movies

The Left-Handed Gun; Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid