Le réfractaire

There is a lot more to this predominantly lyrical account of an episode in Billy the Kid's life than action and brainless swagger. Hardboiled, embittered Billy gets a job as a cowhand for a pacifist farmer who rhapsodizes about how being unarmed protects a man by the usual Wild West code of not shooting a man in the back. When the farmer, Billy's new guardian, is killed, though, Billy's new-found love of peace and order must give way to a desire for revenge on the bad guys.

Somewhere along the line this film gets to sanctimonious and preachy to be entirely enjoyable, and Brian Donleavy as Billy's childhood pal turned born-again marshall deputy is the most unbelievable thing about it. Robert Taylor is a handsome devil in tight-fitting black leather, and it is honestly a relief when he finds back to his old bad ways, and things start happening again.

The Technicolor location cinematography is gorgeous.

Many Western movies have used Monument Valley as a back drop since John Ford popularised it, in movies like Stagecoach and the Searchers, but none better than this one in my opinion. Director David Miller seems to have spent time working out how to shoot the scenery from every favourable angle, with great attention to composition, finding many new and attractive combinations of the familiar landmark rock formations. Then provides the cast with plenty of opportunities to ride back and forth across in front of it. The movie itself, although not particularly accurate in a historical sense, keeps to the spirit of the more favourable interpretations of Billy's actions and has a sound structure. Robert Taylor, in his prime and decked out in shiny black leather, has rarely looked better, and Brian Donleavy is given a rare opportunity to play a "white hat", instead of his usual role as a leader of the "black hats".

Fine actor Robert Taylor seems to be a bit long in the tooth (although he was only 30 at the time) to portray "The Kid." Still, if you suspend all knowledge of the Billy legend, he does a stalwart job as an older and wiser Billy. Brian Donlevy is great, as usual, though he plays the good guy Sherwood (Pat Garrett in reality and in subsequent Billy the Kid inspired films)instead of his many tough guy badies (Beau Geste - Academy Award nominee, and Destry Rides Again - to mention two). The writers seem to change all the names to protect...well who?Instead of Tunstall, the english gentleman rancher who tries to change Billy's wayward ways, it's Keating. Instead of Murphy, the instigator of the Lincoln County War, its Hickey. And instead of Pat Garrett, it's Sherwood. But, some good shoot 'em ups and some good dialogue make this a pleasant Saturday afternoon at the westerns. Saddle up.

Check out Ivanhoe, Waterloo Bridge, and Knights of the Round Table to see Robert Taylor at his best. For other Billy movies, see Young Guns, Young Guns II, Chisum, and the Left Handed Gun.

This movie is Billy the Kid in name only. Anyone who has any kind of fascination with the Wild West or the historical William H. Bonney would do well to shy away from this flick. Almost all of the names have been switched around, the plot shares only a marginal familiarity with the true Billy and the lead actor Robert Taylor seems better suited for playing a 1930's era Chicago gangster than he does playing one of the most famous outlaws of all time.

Now that I've got my historical accuracy niggling out of the way - I still find myself unable to say many positive things about this film. But I'll give it a shot.

Some of the dialogue is rather inventive - and I do actually appreciate the relationship that Billy shares with ranch herder Eric Keating. There's an interesting exchange during Keating's introduction wherein he explains to a wary-eyed Billy why he doesn't carry a gun. Keating's naiveté rests upon a mythological ideal of frontier honor - an ideal that comes with a heavy price.

The movie itself is also wonderfully shot. The Technicolor treatment produces stunning visuals that can easily compare to westerns that are produced ten, fifteen, sometimes even twenty years after Billy the Kid.

Sadly, there simply isn't a lot of material available for Billy the Kid enthusiasts. Again, do NOT refer to this movie if you are looking to find insight into the true story of Billy the Kid. The closest you will probably come towards finding the definitive Billy story is in the 1988 fluff film, "Young Guns" and its subsequent continuation in "Young Guns II" - and even they take great spoonfuls of poetic license with history.

Of all the versions of the Billy the Kid saga this is one of the loosest ones with the facts. Even the names are completely changed in this film with only Robert Taylor retaining Billy's most known alias of William Bonney. Even Brian Donlevy does not get to play Pat Garrett, he's Jim Sherwood in this.

But this is the standard Billy the Kid story, a young outlaw who goes to work for a straight arrow rancher during a range war. Then later when the rancher, in this case Ian Hunter, is gunned down at that point the tragic end that Billy will come to is irreversibly set for him.

This was Robert Taylor's first western and it would be another eight years before he did another. After that westerns became pretty standard film fare for him. Taylor, like his good friend, Ronald Reagan, loved horses and probably if MGM hadn't made him a romantic heart throb, he would have loved to have been a cowboy actor. Like Reagan he certainly looked at home hosting Death Valley Days later on.

Jim Sherwood(Pat Garrett)is a different part for Brian Donlevy to play. Donlevy was at the high point of his career as a screen villain and being a good guy for him is almost a case of an alternate universe. But being the professional he was, Donlevy carries off the portrayal in fine style.

Ian Hunter is just fine as the English gentleman rancher who tries to set Taylor on the straight and narrow. And you will not find a sneakier more loathsome villain than Gene Lockhart as the local boss of the area who is provoking a range war with Hunter.

Billy the Kid is not the best western that Taylor ever did, but it certainly opened a whole new career vista for him.