Friday 21st January 2011

Young Guns

Director: Christopher Cain
Year: 1988
Stars: Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney, Casey Siemaszko

Yes, I've seen this. Yes, I love it. I've always loved it, from the first time I saw it. Although I actually saw Young Guns II first, and have seen that sequel a lot more times than this original. But for Christmas I was (wonderfully, happily) bought Young Guns (along with Lost Boys and Grease- what could be better?) by a friend as something to play on our new, shiny blu-ray player. Now, we did watch this at her house over Christmas, but I was tired and it was late, so I fell asleep half way through (resulting in me deciding it wasn't really fair to blog about it at the time).

Anyway, due to me feeling lazy and a bit ill, I decided I'd give the extras on this blu-ray a go, as I knew there was a 50 minute long documentary on the history of the real Billy the Kid. This, eventually, resulted in me watching the whole movie again, with some trivia bits turned on during it. Having just heard about the true history of the Kid actually made the film feel really fresh to me. I now knew what was true and what the filmmakers had taken artistic licence with. It didn't ruin the movie at all for me, just made me see it from a different perspective.

Something else that made me view the movie in a new light was the quality of the picture. I'm sure it was just as good at my friend's house, but I was tired then. Watching it now, fully awake, I was very aware of the fact that plants looked pink, rather than that murky green/grey they had always been on TV in the past. HD really does make a difference when you think you know something well!

For those of you who don't know the story, Young Guns is all about Billy the Kid, an American outlaw in the late 1880s in the USA. He was based in New Mexico and lived and died there - spending a lot of his time rustling cattle and killing men. Something of an antihero, it's a famous story with a lot of background you probably don't know (I didn't, until I watched the documentary).

It's a great movie, although not exactly the most serious. I love it for its clear love of Billy the Kid and comedic, fun atmosphere. It tells a story about a Wild West we'd all love to believe existed, but is probably mostly just the result of our imaginations. This isn't a serious, high-brow movie. But it is a lot of fun - my favourite kind. Especially when I need cheering up!

Rating: 5 out of 5