O Último Xerife

Tilghman was the corrupt one in this story, not Wiley Lynn. Tilghman was extorting protection money from the casinos and bawdy houses in Cromwell. Lynn was the federal agent in charge of enforcing the prohibition of alcohol in the area. Tilghman had made public threats to kill him, but when he tried to as Lynn was raiding one of his client's businesses, Lynn was able to fire his weapon first and kill the corrupt marshal. He was tried for the killing and found not guilty, but the myth of the old "lawman" was stronger than the truth, and Lynn's reputation was destroyed and he resigned from his federal job. He became an alcoholic and eventually died in another shootout.

I'm disappointed that Sam Elliott would agree to make a movie like this, which is so obviously based on lies.

It's too bad that Sam Elliott didn't come along 20 or 30 years earlier to films. If he had he would never lack for work as a cowboy hero. He's not done too bad in the present day in any event. In You Know My Name he plays one of the west's last genuine heroes from the old days in a new era with little regard for law enforcement which proves to be his undoing.

Bill Tilghman, one of the great frontier marshals of the old west took his last job in law enforcement in Cromwell, Oklahoma in 1924. It was an oil boom town, a wide open town with roughneck money fueling the economy the way the trail hands did back in Tilghman's prime. Now however big city gangsters and their hirelings are running things and even though Prohibition is in the Constitution, that doesn't seem to matter to a thirsty public. It's a world of rumbleseats in flivvers, tommy guns, and bobbed hair on women, Tilghman is out of his time.

He's also got a jurisdictional dispute with Prohibition Federal agent Arliss Howard playing the corrupt T-Man, Wiley Lynn. For all the agents like Eliot Ness, there were more like Wiley Lynn, getting rich on bribes enabling people to flout an unpopular law.

Elliott gives one of his best performances as Bill Tilghman. A weary man who could sit back on his laurels and they were considerable, at the age of 70, yes 70, he goes back to doing the work of a younger man because the younger man are corrupt in a corrupt age. This part was one where Sam Elliott's premature gray hair stood him in good stead.

What you see in You Know My Name is the truth, exactly what happened to Tilghman. I would commend people to read up on Tilghman and find out that this last of the frontier marshals had one glorious career that came to a sad end. This is a wonderful film about a western hero who literally did die with his boots on.

This movie definitely could have been better. First, you've got a great story of a great man to the people and law of Cromwell. Second, without a doubt, you've got Sam Elliot! After Clint Eastwood, nobody took the role of a great western actor...until Sam Elliot.

The true(?)story of Oklahoma lawman Bill Tilghman. Producer/star Elliott who is legendary for his characterizations of western lawmen and pioneers, falls flat on this project. Some one needs to explain to me why, WHY, when many of the original locations in the movie-Cromwell, Wowoka, and Chandler, Ok, are still much as the same as they were in the 20s-when this story takes place-did Elliott and crew feel it necessary to film in Canada?? Must be a NAFTA thing. And again, there is the attempt to make the west seem more like the present (large drug shipments parachuting into rural areas-reminiscent of the "Mena legend"!). .. my guess this is done to appeal to the Gen Xers. This is just another picture, made in the last three decades that gives proof to the adage "Western pictures have gone down-hill ever since Robert L. Lippert died!

In 1924, legendary lawman turned silent film star Bill Tilghman (Sam Elliott) reluctantly agrees to clean up a grimy Oklahoma town controlled bootlegging gangsters and full of rowdy oil-rig workers. He ends up squaring off against coked-out, renegade G-Man Arliss Howard.

This production looks fantastic, with lots of attention to detail and great atmosphere. Unfortunately, there's too much talk and not enough action to go along with the vivid sets, costumes, and locations. This ends up being more of a character study than a western or gangster story.

Sam Elliott does a great job as Tilghman, who rode with the Earps and went up against the real-life Wild Bunch. If anything, the film does do an excellent job at portraying a man who has little left to offer but his pride and stories of past triumphs.