Young Guns II is a 1990 western film, and the sequel to Young Guns (1988). It stars Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Christian Slater, and features William Petersen as Pat Garrett. It was directed by Geoff Murphy.
It follows the life of William H. Bonney aka Billy the Kid (played by Emilio Estevez) in the years following the Lincoln County War in which Billy was part of "The Regulators" — a group of around 6 highly skilled gunmen avenging the death of John Tunstall — and the years before Billy's documented death. The film, however, is told by Brushy Bill Roberts, a man who in the 1940s appeared claiming to be the real Billy the Kid.
While the film is wildly historically inaccurate, it does show some of the key events leading up to Billy's documented death, including his talks with Governor Lew Wallace, his capture by friend-turned-foe Pat Garrett, his trial and his subsequent escape in which he killed two deputies.
Plot
The film opens in 1950 with a young attorney talking to an elderly man named Brushy Bill Roberts, who claims that he is William H. Bonney (aka Billy The Kid), whom "everyone" knows to have been shot and killed by Pat Garrett in 1881. The majority of the film takes place in flashbacks as the old man recalls his story for the lawyer, who asks if the man has any proof that he is the famous outlaw.
Brushy Bill's story begins with the remaining Regulators having gone their separate ways. Billy has become part of a new gang with 'Arkansas' Dave Rudabaugh (Slater) and Pat Garrett (Petersen). The state governor has issued warrants for the arrests of those involved in the Lincoln County wars, including Billy, Doc Scurlock (Sutherland), and Jose Chavez y Chavez (Phillips), who are dragged into town and imprisoned in a pit dug into the ground to await hanging. This is when Chavez mentions the spirit horse (a horse that is said to carry worthy souls to the other side).
Meanwhile, Billy meets with the new governor Lew Wallace who agrees to pardon Billy if he testifies against the Dolan-Murphy faction. Billy soon finds out that he was tricked into being arrested with no chance of testifying against his old enemies. After pulling out of his cuffs, Billy along with the help of Rudabaugh and Garrett, pose as a lynch mob to spring his old comrades from a hanging. When the gang successfully escape Lincoln, Billy mentions the Mexican Blackbird (a broken trail only him and few others know that leads down to ‘Old’ Mexico). Garrett decides not to go with the gang and, instead, open a boarding house.
As they make a run for the border along with farmer Hendry William French (Ruck) and 14 year old Tom O'Folliard (Getty), John Simpson Chisum and Governor Lew Wallace approach Garrett to persuade him with $1000 to use whatever resources he needs to hunt Bonney down and kill him. Garrett agrees and, forming a posse, begins his pursuit of the gang.
As the gang comes to an Indian burial ground, tensions flare between Rudabaugh and Chavez. They have a knife fight ending with Rudabaugh sticking a knife through Chavez’s lower arm and the rest of the men pulling out their guns. They soon come to the town of White Oaks where they meet up with former companion, Jane Greathouse (Jenny Wright) who runs a local bordello. Later that night, the town lynch mob comes for the gang and are intent on a hanging. Deputy Carlisle tries to negotiate a deal, ‘the Indian’ (Chavez) for a safe rideout. Billy shows his loyalty to his friend by refusing the offer and pushing the Deputy (who is accidentally killed by the lynch mob) out the door. Garrett soon tracks Billy to the bordello, but is too late. Jane not only proves unhelpful but disparages Garrett for turning against Billy, which causes Garrett to set fire to the bordello. In an inexplicable act of defiance, Jane strips naked in front of the posse and rides off on a horse.
Billy and his gang are continuously tracked by the posse, narrowly evading capture, but Tom (being mistaken for Billy) is soon shot by Garrett. As they hideout, Billy reveals that the Mexican Blackbird was just a pawn to get the gang back together and to keep riding. Doc is angered and points his gun at Billy, but quickly puts it down and tries to leave for home. He is shot by one of Garrett’s men and sacrifices himself to enable his friends to escape. Billy is soon cornered and taunts Garrett, yelling, “You killed the boy and you killed Doc! You knew him!”
Billy the Kid is soon brought back into Lincoln by Garrett and is sentenced to be hanged by the neck until he is dead, dead, dead, to which he tells the judge that he can go to hell, hell, hell. He is visited by Jane Greathouse, who arranges to meet him during his daily outhouse visit, where she gives him a pistol. Despite Billy's warning not to, the younger guard raises his own gun, forcing Billy to kill him with regret. Hearing the shots from across the street, Bob Ollinger, the other guard assigned to guard The Kid, rushes to the scene. Billy uses Bob's own shotgun, which he had used to taunt Billy earlier in the film, to shoot him dead and then escapes to Old Fort Sumner.
By the time he arrives, Dave has abandoned the group to make his way to Mexico, and Chavez lies close to death, only succumbing when he sees the spirit horse running towards him. Billy is incensed at how his actions have led to the deaths of his friends while he has been largely unharmed. During the night, after taking refuge with a female friend, he decides to get something to eat, realizing too late that he is unarmed just as Pat Garrett makes his presence known. Billy asks Pat to let him go, saying he'll hide. The lawman doesn't believe that it would work, saying that "they'd stone me." Billy then excoriates his old friend for his treachery and for killing his friends, but Pat throws back at him that Billy, in effect, is the one that killed everyone through his leadership. Billy turns around, forcing Garrett to have to shoot him in the back. Garrett shoots errantly, striking a distant pinata. In the morning, William H. Bonney is “buried” and Garrett’s horse is seen being taken by someone (presumably Billy the Kid) bringing to mind a conversation from earlier in the film where Billy had said that he would never steal a horse from a man he didn't like.
The film ends with Brushy Bill walking away while the lawyer chases after him, having been convinced of the man's true identity. The epilogue reveals that Dave was beheaded once he reached 'Old' Mexico to discourage more outlaws from crossing the border, Garrett's book his pursuit of Billy is a dismal failure and he is eventually shot and killed, and despite corroboration from several surviving friends of the outlaw, Brushy Bill Roberts was never credited as being Billy the Kid and he died shortly after. Whether or not Brushy Bill was the actual Billy the Kid remains a mystery.
Cast
Production
- One scene was shot in Bisbee, Arizona and not in Old Tucson. During the opening a scene of a snowy street is used, the street is Brewery Gulch next to the Copper Queen Hotel. Coincidently Brewery Gulch was famous for having 100 bars along its three block length about the same time as the film takes place. Tombstone is less than a thirty minute (automobile) drive to the North of Bisbee.
- Balthazar Getty was replaced in 4 scenes by an 11 year-old lookalike due to an injury sustained from falling off of a horse.
- The scene where Arkansas Dave Rudabaugh (played by Christian Slater) puts a knife through Chavez' arm was added due to Lou Diamond Phillips' breaking his arm during filming.
- John Chisum (played by James Coburn) convinces Pat Garrett to accept a job as the new Lincoln County Sheriff. Coburn himself played Garrett in Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
Soundtrack
Emilio Estevez originally approached Jon Bon Jovi to ask him for permission to include the song "Wanted Dead Or Alive" on the soundtrack[citation needed]. Bon Jovi didn't feel the song was entirely appropriate (particularly the line "On a steel horse I ride")[citation needed]; however, he was inspired by the project and resolved to write a new song for the film that would be more in keeping with the period and setting. He quickly wrote the song "Blaze of Glory", offering it to Estevez for inclusion in the film. Bon Jovi later made a cameo appearance as one of the prisoners in the pit with Doc and Chavez.
Bon Jovi then went on to write and record several more songs, working with drummer Kenny Aronoff and legendary guitarist Jeff Beck. Blaze of Glory was Jon Bon Jovi's debut solo album, released in 1990. It includes songs from, and inspired by, the movie Young Guns II, including the US #1 single "Blaze of Glory" which was later included on Bon Jovi's 1994 compilation album Cross Road and the #12 hit 'Miracle'. The Approximate sales were in excess of two million copies in the United States, making it an album that achieved success both commercially and critically[citation needed]. The film's original score was composed by Alan Silvestri.
Reception
Young Guns II opened on August 1, 1990 in the United States in 1,770 theaters, accumulating $8,017,438 over its opening weekend. It finished third for the weekend, behind Ghost (in its fourth week) and Presumed Innocent (in its second week). The film went on to gross $44,143,410 domestically.[1]
Young Guns II was poorly received by the majority of professional critics.[citation needed] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received 36% overall approval out of 14 reviews.[2] Roger Ebert, who gave Young Guns II 2 stars out of 4, stated that "the screenplay feels unfinished, the direction is ambling, but the performances are interesting."[3]
Historical inaccuracy
- The only actors to return from the original film are Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, and Lou Diamond Phillips. In reality however, neither Doc Scurlock or Chavez y Chavez rode with Billy the Kid following the Lincoln County War. With exception to Dave Rudabaugh, many of the gang members who 'did' follow Billy the Kid both during and after the Lincoln County War did not appear in the film including Billy Wilson, Tom Pickett and Charlie Bowdre, the latter having been killed off in the original film.
- In the movie, Doc Scurlock (played by Kiefer Sutherland) died the way Charlie Bowdre had died. In real life, Charlie walked in front of the door and was shot; In reality Scurlock lived on and became a schoolteacher and died in 1929.
- Jose Chavez y Chavez (played by Lou Diamond Phillips) did not die during this time; he lived a long life, dying much later in 1924.
- Henry William French played by Alan Ruck is a combination of Jim French and Henry Newton Brown, both original members of the Regulators not depicted in the original film.
- Tom O'Folliard, played by Balthazar Getty, was an original member of the Regulators not depicted in the original film. The real O'Folliard was, in fact, a very close friend of Billy the Kid for many years. The movie portrays O'Folliard as being only 14 years old while Billy the Kid was 21. In reality, he was a year older than Billy.
- No one got away from the ambush by Garrett's posse at Stinking Springs. A few were injured, and Charlie Bowdre died. The Kid and his gang surrendered and were all taken to jail in Santa Fe, but Dave Rudabaugh eventually escaped and did flee to Old Mexico. Despite claims that he fled to Montana and led a "normal life", it is accepted that Rudabaugh killed two men in Mexico and was shortly thereafter beheaded. The Mexican government even took a picture of his severed head as proof that they had executed the outlaw.[4]
- During his escape from jail, Billy shouts out "Hello, Bob" before shooting Bob Ollinger, and "Goodbye, Bob" after killing him—the exact same dialogue that the real Billy the Kid used during the incident.
- The real Billy never told a judge he could go to "Hell, Hell, Hell," after the judge sentenced him to hang by the neck until he be "dead, dead, dead." In fact, he sat quietly and, when asked if he had anything to say on his behalf, he kept his head low and answered with a simple "No."
References
- ^ "Young Guns II (1990)". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=youngguns2.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
- ^ "Young Guns II". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/young_guns_2/. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (1990-08-01). "Young Guns II". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19900801/REVIEWS/8010301/1023. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
- ^ "Dirty Dave Rudabaugh — The Only Man Billy the Kid Ever Feared". Legends of America. http://www.legendsofamerica.com/WE-DaveRudabaugh.html. Retrieved 2007-05-09.
External links
