Wild Bill (1995)

Jeff Bridges is Wild Bill Hickok, who arrives in Deadwood in the late 3os as a man in decline.

The string of bodies he’s left behind him — the stuff of legends — has turned him into a national hero.

But he’s also a man going blind from a degenerative eye disease which leaves him with debilitating headaches.

He drinks. He gambles. He visits the opium den to escape from it all, only to find that he’s haunted by dreams of his past.

In Deadwood, he’s also reunited with Calamity Jane (Ellen Bakrin), who would like nothing better than to rekindle the romance they enjoyed years earlier in Cheyenne.

Wild Bill has little interest. Even when Calamity makes it clear she’s his for the taking, whenever he wants.

He also meets a hot-headed youngster named Jack McCall (David Arquette), who immediately announces his intent to kill Wild Bill.

Seems Wild Bill was romantically involved with his mother years earlier, then left town. When he returned, she’d taken up with another man.

Wild Bill killed that man, supposedly in an argument over a pocket watch. He ruined Susannah Moore’s reputation. Then he ruined her frame of mind.

Jack McCall intends to avenge her. And he has new acquaintances willing to help him do that, for a price.

Jeff Bridges as Wild Bill Hickok, reacting to Jack McCall’s pledge to kill him in Wild Bill (1995)

David Arquette as Jack McCall, announcing his plan to kill Wild Bill Hickok in Wild Bill (1995)

Review:

If you’re making a movie about a topic in which everyone already knows the ending — in this case, the final days of Wild Bill Hickok — getting to that ending had better be compelling.

Unfortunately, Walter Hill — also director of “The Long Riders” and “Geronimo: An American Legend” — presents us with a film that’s more muddled and baffling than compelling.

Muddled because of the frequent flashbacks from Wild Bill’s violent past, which certainly fill the screen with action, but do more to interrupt than advance the film’s narrative. Only two are vital to the story being told.

Baffling because those flashbacks can’t even be trusted as a true history of Wild Bill considering the liberties taken with his final hours.

Walter Hill’s Jack McCall can afford to spend $1,000 to hire five men to help kill Wild Bill. He says he’s doing it to avenge his mother. The real Jack McCall testified that he was evening the score for a brother Wild Bill supposedly killed years earlier in Abilene.

Those hired killers won’t get their final $500 until our hero is dead. Nevertheless, they leave a defenseless Wild Bill in a saloon unharmed. Only to have Wild Bill follow them to the stable and gun down each and every one.

After which Wild Bill invites Jack McCall — the man who’s already held a gun to his head twice — back to the saloon for a drink?

Plausible? Hardly. Compelling? Nope.

Diane Lane plays Jack McCall’s mother in black and white flashback sequences. Christina Applegate has an interesting part as Jack McCall’s lady friend.

Fittingly, the best scene in the movie has little to do with the story being told. Western movie veteran Bruce Dern shows up as a crippled Will Plummer, rolling down the street in a wheelchair to call out Wild Bill.

To make sure it’s a fair fight, Wild Bill’s friends strap him to a barroom chair and carry him out for the final showdown Plummer demands.

Ellen Barkin as Calamity Jane, trying to understand why she and Bill can’t rekindle the flames of their relationship in Wild Bill (1995)

John Hurt as Charley Prince, Wild Bill’s friend, enjoying a drink while he engages in a gunfight outside in Wild Bill (1995)

Directed by:
Walter Hill

Cast:
Jeff Bridges … Wild Bill Hickok
Ellen Barkin … Calamity Jane
John Hurt … Charley Prince
Diane Lane … Susannah Moore
Keith Carradine … Buffalo Bill Cody
David Arquette … Jack McCall
Christina Applegate … Lurline Newcomb
Bruce Dern … Will Plummer
James Gammon … California Joe
Marjoe Gortner … Preacher
James Remar … Donnie Lonigan
Karen Huie … Song Lew
Steve Reevis … Sioux chief
Robert Knott … Dave Tutt
Pato Hoffmann … Cheyenne leader
Patrick Gorman … Doctor
Lee de Broux … Carl Mann
Stoney Jackson … Jubal Pickett
Robert Peters … Mike Williams
Steven Chambers … Curly
Jimmy Medearis … Coke
Jason Ronard … Pink Buford
Dennis Hayden … Phil Coe
Teresa Gilmore … Jessie Hazlit
John Dennis Johnston … Ed Plummer
Boots Southerland … Crook-Eye Clark
James Michael Taylor … Lew Scot
Loyd Catlett … Rob Rainwater
Janel Moloney … Earlene
Ted Markland … Tommy Drum

Runtime: 98 min.

Christina Applegate as Lurline Newcomb, pulling a derringer on a rude customer in Wild Bill (1995)

Diane Lane (right) as Susannah Moore, Jack McCall’s mother and the woman who stole Wild Bill’s heart in Wild Bill (1995)

Memorable lines:

Charley Prince, as he and Wild Bill arrive in Deadwood: “This town, I really think it’s like something out of the Bible.”
Wild Bill Hickok: “What part of the Bible?”
Prince: “The part right before God gets angry.”

Calamity Jane: “Man that cheats at cards ain’t got no religion.”

Calamity Jane, after she kisses Wild Bill: “You wiping it off.”
Will Bill Hickok: “Nah. I’m rubbing it in.”

Wild Bill Hickok, when Calamity Jane doesn’t understand why they can’t be lovers again and wants an explanation: “I don’t owe nobody nothing. I don’t explain myself. Not to you. Not to nobody.”

Wild Bill Hickok: “Where the hell did things go wrong? This kid? Jane? The trouble with my eyes?”

James Remar as Donnie Lonigan, leader of the band of killers Jack McCall hires in Wild Bill (1995)

Stoney Jackson as Jubal Pickett, one of Jack McCall’s hired guns in Wild Bill (1995)

Bruce Dern as Will Plummer, calling out Wild Bill Hickok for a showdown in WIld Bill (1995)

Karen Huie as Song Lew, serving Wild Bill’s craving for opium in Wild Bill (1995)

Bruce Dern as Will Plummer, calling out Wild Bill Hickok for a showdown in WIld Bill (1995)

Jeff Bridges as Wild Bill Hickok, forced to use a magnifying glass because of his fading eyesight in Will Bill (1995)