Young Guns

With a brilliant collection of characters, this movie proved to be one of the more entertaining modern day westerns. Charlie Sheen, Keifer Sutherland, Emilio Estevez, Lou Diamond Phillips and the other guys all shined in this movie, making it memorable in a landscape of a lost art form. Sure, some movies have tried to equal this film's motif (American Outlaws, Texas Rangers, Ride With the Devil, etc.) but all have failed in the process. Coupled with some good shoot-out scenes, this proved to be a rather entertaining movie.

Lots of great action, laughs, and suspense.

Emilio is brilliant as Billy.

Its easy to pass off Young Guns as an eager to please piece of throwaway rock video style entertainment aimed at the younger demographic but that would be unfair.The thing is,it knows what it wants to be and it does it very well.The young cast all perform with great fun and energy thus enriching the film immeasurably.They are well supported by Jack Palance and Terrence Stamp who bring weight to proceedings, particularly Palance who seems to revel in his hammy role.Emilio Estevez's interpretation of Billy The Kid is a great watch too,his realisation of the character may be a million miles from the reality but when there's this much fun being had on screen,who cares!? The music in the film is a little jarring in places,electric guitars screaming Van Halen style over a western horse chase feel very much out of place but its never distracting enough to take you out of the fun. So in summary Young Guns is a western that wants to entertain you and I say it succeeds well.It was never intended to be a Sergio Leone classic western,just a fun ride with characters you can root for.On that level,it is a triumph.

This is a revisionist look about the known story of the West's greatest bandit. Contemporary-style Western with nice performances and fine direction by Christopher Cain who creates some good action scenes. The Kid is well played ,though sometimes overacting , by Emilio Estevez, he plays as a likable, sympathetic,attractive young and favourite with girls. Colorful and great cinematography by Dean Cundey. Modern and unfitting musical score by Anthony Marinelli. The motion picture will like to Western fans. Followed by a sequel titled 'Young Guns II'(Geoff Murphy,1990) with similar players and concerning about Billy and his band heading toward the Old Mexico and pursued by a posse.

The picture is based partially on actual events. These deeds are the following: Billy(Emilio Estevez) became a cowboy in Lincoln County(New Mexico)for cattleman Tunstall(Terence Stamp) along with a young group(Kiefer Sutherland,Charlie Sheen,Lou Diamond Phillips,Dermot Mulroney,Casey Siemaszko). Tunstall was supported by lawyer McSween(Terry O'Quinn). But Tunstall was murdered by rival cattleman Murphy(Jack Palance) and started the Lincoln County War. Billy seeks revenge for his death and he converted an outlaw and nasty gunfighter with a price on his head. Bonney and his gang pull off a hot pursuit against the enemies. Billy, his band and McSween were besieged but he went out firing his gun and made his escape. The Kid was caught and convicted of killing and sentenced to be hanged ; though shackled foot and hand , he managed to getaway from prison by shooting dead the deputies guarding him. Pat Garret(Patrick Wayne), a former friend, was elected sheriff and set off in pursuit to capture him and on 1881 tracked at Fort Sumner and there shot him dead by surprise. Legend says that Billy murdered 21 men in his 21 years of life but is really thought to be much less.

Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Emilo Estevez and Lou Diamond Phillips star in this light weight western, re-telling of the Billy The Kid story. This movie plays fast and loose with history and is in not particularly accurate about most details but as an enjoyable western adventure it succeeds. The movies style harks back to the old days of the western adventure such as Rio Bravo etc and while nowhere near it in terms of class it is a worthwhile watch. Jack Palance makes a fantastic bad guy and Terranc Stamp puts in a good performance as the gangs father figure. Performances of the brat pack are pretty good and I really enjoyed Estevez's portrayal of the kid. If you like westerns and enjoyed modern versions such as Tombstone you'll enjoy this movie.

7/10 - Not exactly Unforgiven or Rio Bravo but still a worthwhile watch for any western fan.