Kid Blue

Definitely a revisionist Western, but I love this film. Dennis Hopper plays Bickford Waner who has gone to Dime Box Texas to live an honest life, but really he is Outlaw Kid Blue of Fort Worth. Ben Johnson is fantastic as Sheriff Mean John Simpson. Warren Oates is great as Warner's friend in town. M Emmitt Walsh has a role in this. Hopper was great in this. Played this straight yet there was always a kindness to his character. It's a shame this isn't better known. It's very tame in language and violence. This is like a counter culture Western. Seek it out .

I saw this movie in the mid-70s at the People's Theater in a small town in Kansas (shortly before it burned down (the theater, not the town) & I've been wanting to see it ever since, although I'm almost afraid to now for fear of spoiling my memory of it..

The way I remember it, it was set in a Colorado town at the turn of the century (19th to 20th) & it was about capitalism & modernity & the end of the frontier. The classic scene in my memory is Dennis Hopper walking down Main Street with the owner of the new factory, which makes little gewgaws of some sort. The factory owner explains to Dennis Hopper that he needs to get a job in the factory so he can earn money to buy things that other people make in other factories-- (not mentioning, of course, that he skims off his share in the process). Political economy 101 for the wild wild west.

I'll admit that it wasn't a cinematic masterpiece-- the only lines of dialogue I remember for sure are Hopper's Native American pal advising him: "If you're not hungry, don't eat cow (censored word)," and somebody yelling, "Shoot that peckerwood, sheriff." On second thought, I probably shouldn't watch it again. Still, I like the beat, I can dance to it, I'll give it a 9.

I saw this movie when it first came out in the theater in 1973. Everyone I knew who saw it loved it. Then it disappeared. Vanished. Gone. Never available on VHS nor DVD, so your chances of ever seeing this great movie are nil. However, as I write this in November 2005, the movie is available on Comcast On-Demand Free Movies!

With a memorable supporting cast including Peter Boyle, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson and the beautiful, young Lee Purcell, Dennis Hopper turns in one of his best performances. You'll never forget Ben Johnson as Mean John Simpson. Nor Peter Boyle as the ascetic high-tech, high-flying Preacher. Although it is set in Texas around the turn of the century, the social commentary that is critical of religion, racial prejudice, the establishment's compulsion to force conformity on everyone, the inequality in the workplace, and the hypocrisy of the elite ruling class and their control of law enforcement, is still relevant today. Perhaps even more so than when it was released in 1973. With comedic undertones, the movie manages to combine action/violence, drama and an implied steamy sex scene without ever becoming too serious. It pits the individual against the mores and values of the group (in this case the town of Dimebox, Texas and it's biggest employer, the All American Western Novelty Company). And guess who wins?

Don't miss this movie if you have Comcast Digital. It's available until March 2006.

Typically weird Dennis Hopper early 1970s film. Maybe he was tripping on LSD making this off beat movie. If you are a fan of Mr. Hopper you might like this, if not, it is a curiosity to be seen once.

This very pointed satire on the end of the "old west" and the concurrent growth of capitalism is set in Dime Box, Texas at the beginning of the 20th century. Dime Box is a real town in central Texas but here it is set on the Mexican border, where the new industry in town is a factory manufacturing ashtrays with a Mexican flag and an American flag stuck into them, symbolizing hands across the border (when a buck is concerned.) One of the funny bits I remember is Dennis Hopper asking what an ashtray is for, and he is told for putting cigarette and cigar ashes in, and he replies that people smoke outdoors, why do they need something to put the ashes in?

So he is something of an innocent, even though a former outlaw who has decided to go straight, move to town, and join the 20th century. He gets many lessons in capitalism, Native American spirituality vs Christianity, modern sexuality, and, since this was made in the early 70s, the attitude of law enforcement toward young, long-haired males. I haven't seen this in over 30 years but saw it several times in theater then and laughed every time.

It has such a great cast, particularly the males, Hopper, Boyle, Oates, Ben Johnson, all as adept at comedy as drama. Sure would like to see this get a DVD release!