Deadwood: Le film

This movie, a brilliant & touching send off to one of the best series ever aired, is like a study on how to write a finale. Every character has a prime moment, the story flows beautifully and it's full of comedy, pathos & action. It makes me wonder how HBO let some shows go on well past their due date and ended this prematurely. Congratulations to all involved for giving the fans the best send off anyone could expect and more.

Oh how I missed this Shakespeare on the Plains. These rich, wonderful, profane characters raised swearing to an art form. HBO canceled this series waaay to soon. It was ahead of its time and had it come some years later, as the streaming series' became common place, it would have received a longer run and it's just due. But kudos to HBO for correcting its error with this full- length film, directed by Daniel Minahan, that wraps up the doings in Deadwood. All the old cast are back-10 years later, and the film takes its time giving all our old favorites the time they deserve. During its entire run, I cannot recall a bad performance and none are to be found here. Space prohibits complimenting all the performances, but I must send ovations to Timothy Oliphant, as Seth Bullock, and Ian McShane as, 'Al Swearingen.' They created magnificent characters that will live in our collective memories. Notable too: Brad Dourif, as 'Doc', William Sanderson, as 'E. B', Robin Weigart, as Calamity Jane, Paula Malcomson, as 'Trixie', John Hawkes, as 'Sol Star', and Gerald McRaney, as 'George Hearst'. Creator and writer, the late David Milch, gave us a labor of love and one of the great series of all-time. The movie is it's fitting epitaph.

Finally, we returned to Deadwood! My family has been waiting for this for SOO Long...we felt like we were attending a family reunion after being away for 10 years...this is the most perfect ending to a perfect series...every once in a while in the movie industry, all actors, actresses, plot, scenery, director & writer come together to make an unforgettable, magical work of art....this is DEADWOOD. The characters have aged but the magnificent prose that each espoused years ago is still as familiar as old slippers....The end was very much like attending the funeral of a beloved relative....too bad there will never be another masterpiece like this show!

Fantastic to have one last chance to visit these wonderfully rendered characters, listen to the language and lines, and get a feel for the time period again. An amazing job to get them all back together again and carry on like nothing had passed, except time, and it is not lost on us what a privilege and major feat it was to make that happen, although it shouldn't have been so in the first place, thank you to all involved who pushed this through, diverting budget from another hollow reality show with no meaning, into something of artistic merit, which this most certainly is.

To the actual movie/episode; the story was almost secondary to giving the characters some forward movement, and closure, to see how they had carried on with their lives, learned to live with each other etc etc, and the plot did feel kind of secondary to that, ie baddie did something bad, and is found out, case closed etc.

Seeing Swearingen age and Succumb to life was a core feature of this episode, but there was so much to fit into such a small space, but so thankful they did. It should be more, why isn't it?

Based on my opinion of the excellent series I wanted to rate this so much higher.

The performances are great, the production values high, dialogue and humour good and delivered well.

Unfortunately the plot, or what passes for a plot feels so contrived. Too much packed into 2 hours ruins the pace and impacts on the delivery. No subtlety, no flavour. It's not the Deadwood I remembered so fondly.

At the end I felt like I'd watched a Christmas Special of an average drama.