Wild Bill (1995 film)

Plot

A well-known lawman and scout of the 19th Century's western frontier, Wild Bill Hickok (Jeff Bridges) has drifted to Deadwood, Dakota Territory. Jack McCall (David Arquette) is a young man whose mother and family have been slighted by Bill in the past, and is out for revenge.

Troubled by his on-again, off-again relationship with a woman called Calamity Jane (Ellen Barkin), haunted by the ghosts of his past, and struggling with failing eyesight, Wild Bill faces with grave concern the arrival of this dangerous newcomer to town.

Cast

Script

The script was based on several sources. One of them was the play Fathers and Sons which had been on Broadway in 1978, directed by Joseph Papp. It was written by Thomas Babe, and focused on Hickok's last days in Deadwood, placing the action in the saloon where he was killed. Babe says he entirely made up the character of McCall, who he turned into Hickok's illegitimate son. Babe's play was seen in Los Angeles in 1980 by Walter Hill, who had been considering a film on Hickok. Hill optioned the play along with a screenplay about Hickok by Ned Wynn.

Meanwhile the team of Richard and Lili Zanuck had optioned a 1986 novel about Hickock called Deadwood. They had hired the author to write the script for the movie Rush. The Zanucks said they were interested in the project because it explored the nature of celebrity in a Western context. "Figures like Wild Bill were like rock stars," said Lili Zanuck. "They had sex appeal." Dexter wrote a script based on his novel which was sent to Barry Levinson and Sydney Pollack before going to Hill.

Hill wrote a script based on the play, the novel, and Ned Wynn's screenplay. Hill says he took details of the town from the novel but the relationship between McCall and Hickok was mostly from the play. Hill took material from Dexter's novel for the atmosphere of the town and relied on Babe's play heavily for the third act, the last hours of Hickok. The Zanucks and Walter Hill took the script to John Calley, president of United Artists, and the film was green-lighted at the end of January 1995. Jeff Bridges and Ellen Barkin signed to star.

Westerns revived in popularity in the early 90s with Dances with Wolves and Unforgiven. However some other Westerns had been box office disappointments including Wyatt Earp. Producer Richard Zanuck said, "If you make a good picture and have a compelling story to tell, it's going to work. I don't believe that any genre dies. It just has to be fed with good product."

Shooting

Hill said that Jeff Bridges was "an actor I greatly love... a very nice man, decent, hard working, got along well, no problems" but that there "was always a kind of tension between Jeff and myself" because "Jeff does a lot of takes, I don't. My focus is very intense, but when it gets to be you just doing it again and again I lose it and I find an awful lot of performers go stale. He would always have an idea he thought he could make something better."

Reception

The film received mixed reviews, with a 41% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. and a 5.9 on the Internet Movie Database. Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four, criticizing its pacing and plot. He recognized the film's ambition, aiming for "elegy" and "poetry" in its final act, but ultimately described it as flawed, writing, "We can see where it's headed, although it doesn't get there." In a positive review, Bruce Fretts of Entertainment Weekly wrote that the movie "succeeds as a character study of a man whose idiosyncratic code of justice eventually catches up with him", and complimented Jeff Bridges' acting as vital to the film's success. Variety, while also praising Jeff Bridges' performance, took a critical stance, observing that the film "comes to a near dead-stop in the final stretch".

Wild Bill bombed at the box office. Produced on a budget of $30 million, it took in just over $2 million in the United States alone.

Hill was unhappy with the way the film was released. "I believe in the old adage that when you see the trailer for your movie and it's very different from the movie you've actually made, then you can assume the studio wanted something else," Hill said. However he did add that "I don't think any other company would have made this film, so I'm very indebted to them for letting me do it."