Movie Type: Outlaw (Gunfighter) Film, Psychological Western
Themes: Sheriffs and Outlaws
Main Cast: Paul Newman, Lita Milan, Hurd Hatfield, James Congdon, James Best
Release Year: 1958
Country: US
Run Time: 102 minutes
Plot
The Left Handed Gun was adapted by Gore Vidal from his own TV play, The Death of Billy the Kid. 33-year-old Paul Newman stars as 21-year-old William Bonney, the hotheaded gunslinger known as Billy the Kid. Avoiding the usual Hollywood glamourization of this controversial character, Newman portays Bonney pretty much as he was: an illiterate, homicidal cretin. Treated with kindness for the first time in his life by rancher Tunstall (Colin Keith-Johnston), Bonney becomes devoted to the rancher; in fact, it is virtually a love affair. Soon after, however, Tunstall is killed, prompting Bonney to go on a murderous spree. In the end, Bonney must face down the other important father-figure in his life, Pat Garrett (John Dehner). In case anyone should miss the Freudian subtext in The Left Handed Gun, the closeups of Bonney fondling his six-shooter will make things crystal clear. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
With this adaptation of Gore Vidal's television play, Arthur Penn made an awkward transition from TV to film, but not without eliciting an interesting performance from a young Paul Newman. Typical of the kind of filmed theater that flourished under producer Fred Coe during the 1950s, Penn's dialogue-heavy film transforms the teenage gunslinger into a soul-searching, misunderstood youth, seemingly tormented by his illiteracy as much as he is by the death of his father figure, Tunstall (Colin Keith-Johnston). Despite the film's lethargic pacing and overall sense of self-indulgence, it gives Newman a chance to stretch out in an extremely Method-influenced performance that's engrossing in itself and well-suited to the script's '50s Freudianism. Hurd Hatfield is effective in the ill-conceived part of a disillusioned pulp novelist who is more a theatrical device than a character, but except for John Dehner, the rest of the cast is truly dismal. Penn's visual sense is little better; the lack of balance and tension in his compositions contribute to the film's abiding feeling of slackness. No one seeing the film would find it easy to believe that within a decade he would be one of the most celebrated film and stage directors in the world. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Art Loel - Art Director, Marjorie Best - Costume Designer, Russ Saunders - First Assistant Director, Arthur Penn - Director, Folmar Blangsted - Editor, Alexander Courage - Composer (Music Score), Gordon Bau - Makeup, J. Peverell Marley - Cinematographer, Fred Coe - Producer, William L. Kuehl - Set Designer, Earl Crain, Sr. - Sound/Sound Designer, Leslie Stevens - Screenwriter, Gore Vidal - Book Author
William Bonney, known as 'Billy the Kid' befriends a man known as 'The Englishman'. His friend is murdered by corrupt businessmen. Bonney's plan for revenge, hunting down and killing all responsible, endangers not only his surviving loved ones, but the international peace set up for the entire territory.
The title refers to the belief that Billy the Kid was left handed, and he shoots left handed in the film, though it now known this was a false conclusion from a reversed photograph.
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