Douglas Booth is Red Bill, bounty hunter supreme who roams the West with his dirty black bag full of heads he’s chopped off the outlaws he finds.

Why the dirty blag bag? Hell, that’s simple. Heads are lighter to drag around than bodies.

He’s searching for the man who killed his mother. Years after he started, he doesn’t even know the man’s identity.

Just that the killer brandished a knife with an eye carved into the handle and used that knife to carve up his mother’s back.

That search has led Red Bill to Glenvale, known as gold city until the gold played out five years prior.

Red Bill immediately clashes with Arthur McCoy (Dominic Cooper), a sheriff used to ruling this here roost and none too eager to welcome a stranger with such an apparent knack for killing.

About the only person McCoy defers to is Eve (Niv Sultan), who runs The Red Lantern and the prettiest stable of whores for miles and miles around.

Right now, she’s busy trying to keep her favorite, Symone (Rose Williams), in line.

Which means convincing her not to marry a deputy named Nathan she’s been leading on.

Of course, Eve has some problems of her own when it comes to relationships. She’s in love with Steve, a man determined to make a living as a farmer in a land where it seldom rains.

But he’s married and has a son with wife Michelle. And he’s committed to life on his hardscrabble farm, partly because of a closely guarded secret about his land.

Douglas Booth as Red Bill, a bounty hunter searching for the man who killed his mother in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Dominic Cooper as Arthur McCoy, sheriff and boss in the town of Glenvale in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

It’s land coveted by a man named Thompson, who’s already gobbled up most of the property rights around Glenvale.

He’s simply convinced there’s more gold to be found. And that Glenvale’s days as gold city will return.

Well, McCoy forces bounty hunter Red Bill to leave town. But being the obstinate type, Red Bill steals the sheriff’s horse as he’s leaving.

Sheriff McCoy sets out in pursuit — regardless of the fact that he and a deputy named Kurt just stole $200,000 in federal money from a gang of bandits.

Kurt balks. Heck, with all that money, they’re set up for life. Why worry about one damned horse?

But McCoy isn’t about to be shown up by a bounty man lugging around a dirty black bag full of heads.

And before the ensuing chase ends, Red Bill will have at least some of the answers he’s been seeking about his mother’s death.

Guido Caprino as Bronson, a former outlaw with gubernatorial aspirations in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Niv Sultan as Eve, owner of The Red Lantern whorehouse and one of the most powerful citizens of Glenvale in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Review:

If viewers aren’t aware they’re settling in for a fresh take on the Spaghetti West, they will be by the end of the first scene. A fly is trapped in the barrel of a six-gun, Sergio Leone style.

The “great duel” that ends the eight episodes of Season 1 is straight out of the land of Sergio too, with closeups that draw in tighter and tighter until the pistols start a blazin’.

In between, AMC delivers a great-looking, well-acted series that fans of Westerns will want to check out just because the production values are so much better than most low-budget oaters being released.

But will this join your list of favorite Spaghetti classics?

Well, maybe not. Because in freshening up the genre, the series creators weren’t content with quick bursts of violence and the sudden death of key characters.

And so things get pretty outlandish, to the point where Season 1 includes a taste of cannibalism, a killer with an eye-shaped graveyard of bones in his backyard and a group of sadists with dozens and dozens of victims buried neck deep in the sand.

Oh, and there’s a secret society that welcomes a young girl as either the chosen one or their latest sacrifice. That’s one plot point left unresolved when Season 1 ends.

There’s a bit of a logic problem too. If the gold ran out five years ago, if it never rains, how is Glenvale still a town, let alone one with a thriving whorehouse and so many problems it needs a sheriff and at least a half dozen deputies.

That said, the sizeable cast won’t disappoint. Not once did I wonder how an actor or actress wound up in front of a camera. For a 21st Century Western, that alone is a massive feat.

Christian Cooke as Steve, wondering if his closely guarded secret might save his love in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Patterson Joseph as Thompson, a man convinced Glenvale’s days as a gold boomtown aren’t over in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Directed by:
Mauro Aragoni
and Brian O’Malley

Cast:
Dominic Cooper … Arthur McCoy
Douglas Booth … Red Bill
Niv Sultan … Eve
Guido Caprino … Bronson
Christian Cooke … Steve
Paterson Joseph .. Thompson
Rose Williams … Symone
Zoe Boyle … Michelle
Ivan Shaw … Kurt
Eugene Brave Rock … The Stranger
Anna Chancellor .. Hellen
Aidan Gillen … Butler
Travis Fimmel … Anderson
Gaia Zampighi … Tara
Nicolo Pasetti … Martin

Runtime: 419 min.

Rose Williams as Symone, trying to let deputy Nathan down easy in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Benjamin Stender as Nathan, a deputy obsessed with the idea of making a pretty whore named Symone his wife in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Memorable lines:

Sheriff McCoy, rushing to hear reports that a killer if back in the area to find a mob assembled: “Next time you have something to tell me, a couple of you will do, not the whole damn town.”

Sheriff McCoy: “And who might you be?”
Red Bill: “Red Bill.”
He drops his bag. The sheriff looks inside.
Red Bill: “The head weighs less than the body.”

Sheriff McCoy to Red Bill: “You keep your crazy ass out of my jurisdiction.”

Steve: “Without dreams, what are we?”

Francesco Placentini-Smith as teenager Bill, defending his adopted home and family in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Travis Fimmel as the oft-drunk gunman who teaches Red Bill the art of being a bounty hunter in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Sheriff McCoy: “Paranoia don’t make you smarter, Kurt. Just makes you look like you want to shit yourself all the time.”

Sheriff McCoy: “For three men to keep a secret, two of them gotta be dead.”

Kidnapper of Red Bill: “So how are things in Greenvale? Are there more or less sons of bitches there these days?”

Red Bill: “How many men have you killed, sheriff? And how often do you see them?”

Zoe Boyle as Michelle, a wife growing impatient with her husband’s refusal to leave an unforgiving land in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Lorenzo McGovern Zaini as Dorian, Steve and Michelle’s mute son in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Young Billy: “You’re drunk.”
Anderson: “Perceptive little bastard, aren’t ya?”

Thompson to Michelle: “You’re right, I shouldn’t be here. Steve should be here. But he’s in town, weeping for his whore in front of everyone.”

Michelle to her husband: “You think you’re some kind of martyr. You’re as evil as the men you oppose.”

McCoy: “Be careful.”
Red Bill: “Don’t you worry about me. I’ve killed all kinds.”

Ivan Shaw as Kurt, McCoy’s deputy and partner in the theft of $200,000 in stolen money in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Daniel Caltagirone as Henry, trying to gauge a whore’s attraction to his cousin Nathan in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Guido Caprino, an outlaw who drags a golden cross and his gang through a desert at great expense in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Rose Williams as Symone, delivering a birthday surprise to Eve, her friend and boss in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Paterson Joseph as Thompson, growing more desperate to acquire the land he wants in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Niv Sultan as Eve, remembering better times and her love for a farmer named Steve in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Christian Cooke as Steve, watching a dose of Glenvale justice play out in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)

Dominic Cooper as Arthur McCoy, on the wrong end of a gun for a change in That Dirty Black Bag (2022)