Young Guns 2

(Movie Review)

Right, so I guess I'm only 18 years late reviewing this movie.

When these young guns movies came out in the late 80s, I wasn't allowed to see them. (I wasn't allowed to see much as a kid).

Eventually I caught up with the original "Young Guns" movie my Freshman year at Calvin. A group of guys were watching it in the dorm room one Sunday afternoon and I got sucked into it. And I thought it wasn't a bad movie. But of course what's more fascinating than the actual movie though is the real story behind it, especially for a history geek like me.

Like most American boys I was fascinated by the story of Billy the Kid ever since my grade school music teacher introduced us to the story through Copeland's Ballet. (As strange an introduction as that may be, I don't imagine I'm the only one who first learned about "Billy the Kid" in music class. Anyone else have a similar experience?)

This week though I was listening to NPR radio (via the magic of the interent) and they had on an interview with a gentleman talking about his book about Billy the Kid. (I don't know if anyone else heard the show or not. The archived edition is here if you want to give it a listen. I thought it was pretty interesting.)

My interest in Billy the Kid was temporarily re-awakened after hearing this interview, and I wasted some time on the internet looking at various sites. (Unfortunately this seems to be the way my brain is wired. Sometimes the littlest thing can set off huge amateur internet research projects).

Anyway, as part of this little kick I was on, I decided to watch the movie "Young Guns" again. And of course watch it while keeping an eye on it's factual accuracy.

I'd probably get laughed out of the blogosphere if I claimed "Young Guns" was historically accurate, but it is at least more historically accurate than you might think it is. These types of things all depend on expectation. If you go in expecting an historically accurate movie, then you're going to be disappointed. But if, like I did initially, you go in expecting this movie is just Hollywood's attempt to make a hip new Western movie that throws in a bunch of young up-and-coming stars, then it is interesting to see how much of the movie actually checks out.

For example I watched the first "Young Guns" movie alongside this website. After every scene I would pause the movie and go and check out this site to verify the historical accuracy of what I had seen. And although there are huge liberties taken with chronology, ages of the characters, et cetera, basically every character in the movie and every scene in the movie has a basis in real life.

Feeling like I was on a roll, I went on to "Young Guns number 2" which I had not seen before (somehow I never got around to it back in my Calvin days). Thus, according to the rules I set out for myself, it gets a write up on the blog as a movie review.

As with the first movie, I used the internet to help keep an eye on the historical accuracy of this movie while I watched it.
As far as I can figure out, pretty much every event in the first "Young Guns" movie actually happened. Not always exactly the way it was portrayed in the movie, but every scene at least had a basis in real life.
"Young Guns 2" adds several scenes of pure fiction to the story. As the author of this site says about one scene: "In real life the whole thing did not happen. The screenwriter's imagination got a little carried away here, but after all, it is a movie."

Most of the added scenes seem to be for the purpose of reuniting the surviving characters from the first movie. Who, as the internet points out, weren't actually together for the events of the second movie. But if you have an all star Hollywood cast, I guess you'd pretty much have to re-unite them, wouldn't you?

If you'd strip away all these added scenes, I think you'd still be left with a fairly accurate (by Hollywood standards) story of "Billy the Kid". In fact some of the things you would think would be pure Hollywood, such as Billy's miraculous escape from the jail house, or the mob accidentally shooting deputy Caryle and then running off, all have their basis in fact.

This movie features James Coburn (one of my favorite underrated actors) in a bit part, which is no doubt a nod to his role as Pat Garrett back in the 1973 Billy the Kid movie. (The one co-starring Bob Dylan). I haven't actually seen that movie, but I should probably add it to my viewing list at some point as it would combine my interest in James Coburn, Bob Dylan, and Billy the Kid. (Has anyone out there seen that movie? Is it worth seeing?)

Link(s) of the Day
I'm a bit late linking to this post, but I didn't want to let this one go by completely un-noticed because I felt the same way....Um, that is almost the same way. I'm a bit uneasy about using "soccer moms" as a derogatory term, but other than that I was just as bewildered as this blogger.
I subscribe to CNN on my cell phone and for over a week this story about Britney Spear's sister was one of their top stories on the cell phone page.
Honestly I don't know why the hell I still have the subscription anymore. I should have learned my lesson two years ago when I wrote this post: "I lose my Faith in CNN" .

Whilst I'm giving out trivial information:Did you know the Christmas song "O Holy Night" was written by a French Socialist, and then translated by an English Abolitionist? Hence the words:
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,And in His name all oppression shall cease.

Young Guns 2: Movie Review (Scripted)