Young Guns II (1990)

Emilio Estevez is William H. Bonney, now known as Billy the Kid, a young gunman who thinks the Lincoln County War is in his past.

But he’s oh, so wrong. The law has decided to round up all the participants. They already thrown two of his former gang members in a pit in front of the Lincoln jail.

That includes Chavez y Chavez (Lou Diamond Phillips) and Doc Scurlock (Kiefer Sutherland), who the law tracked down all the way to New York where he was living a new life as a school teacher.

Now they’ve got a date with a hangman’s noose.

That won’t do, Billy decides. So he and his friends disguise themselves as a lynch mob and free his former pals, then decide to start collecting some old debts.

When cattle king John Chisum refuses to cough up $500, Billy guns down two of his men. And he says he’ll keep on killing, knocking $5 off the debt for each dead Chisum men.

Enough is enough, Chisum and Gov. Lewis Wallace decide. They need someone to track down Billy and his gang.

And they think they have just the man for the job: Pat Garrett (William Peterson), a former friend of the young killer.

Emilio Estevez as Billy the Kid, explaining a debt owed to cattle king John Chisum in Young Guns II (1990)

Kiefer Sutherland as Doc Surlock, questioning his future if he keeps riding with Billy in Young Guns II (1990)

Review:

A rare instance where the sequel is better than the original, though in this case, that was a pretty easy mountain to climb.

Emilio Estevez is a touch more likeable this time around, but his wacky sense of humor is still intact. The scene where he and his friends pretend to be vigilantes provides the film with an early spark.

With Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney and Casey Siemaszko killed off in the first film, Christian Slater, Alan Ruck and Balthazer Getty are called on to fill out the gang.

Slater’s an especially welcome addition as Arkansas Dave Rudabaugh, a young gun yearning for Billy the Kid type fame, always wondering if people know his name.

James Coburn, who played Garrett in Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 classic “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, proves he can still act in the Chisum role here.

And Jenny Wright provides a memorable turn as Jane Greathouse, the whore who doesn’t share her bed with the law.

Jon Bon Jovi has a bit role in the film and contributed a couple of songs (“Billy Get Your Gun” and “Blaze of Glory) to the soundtrack. But the main theme is a rip-off of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time.”

Lou Diamond Phillips as Chavez y Chavez, hoping for rescue from the pit in Young Guns II (1990)

Christian Slater as Arkansas Dave Rudabaugh, hoping someone knows his name in Young Guns II (1990)

Directed by:
Geoff Murphy

Cast:
Emilio Estevez … William H. Bonney
Kiefer Sutherland … Doc Scurlock
Lou Diamond Phillips … Chavez y Chavez
Christian Slater … Arkansas Dave Rudabaugh
William Peterson … Pat Garrett
Alan Ruck … Hendry French
R.D. Call … D.A. Rynerson
James Coburn … John Chisum
Balthazar Getty … Tom O’Folliard
Jack Kehoe …. Ashmun Upson
Robert Knepper … Deputy Carlyle
Tom Kurlander … J.W. Bell
Viggo Mortensen … John W. Poe
Leon Rippy … Bob Ollinger
Tracey Walter … Beever Smith
Brad Whitford … Charles Phalen
Scott Wilson … Gov. Lewis Wallace
Jenny Wright … Jane Greathouse

Runtime: 104 min.

William Peterson as Pat Garrett, a sheriff spotting his prey in Young Guns II (1990)

James Colburn as cattle king John Chisum, unwilling to cough up money for Billy in Young Guns II (1990)

Memorable lines:

William H. Bonney, telling the story: “Me and Garrett had a common interest in the horse and cattle trade. Contrary to what they say, I like the son-of-a-bitch.”

Beever Smith: “They’re fixin’ to do a big exterminatin’. And, Kid, you’re at the top of their hangin’ list.”

Lincoln lawman: “I want you dead. Do you understand that Sheriff Kimble. I want you to get on your horse. And I want you to track this little fiend to the end of the earth. I want you to assassinate him. I want you to deliver his head in burlap.”
Kimble: “I’d rather drink turpentine and piss on a brush fire.”

Chisum to Billy: “You call yourself the scourge of New Mexico. Well, by god, I am New Mexico. And you are dead.”
Billy: “Let me tell you, Mr. New Mexico. I wouldn’t give you a bucket of piss for your future.”

Balthazar Getty as Tom O’Folliard, the young man who looks up to Billy in Young Guns II (1990)

Alan Ruck as Hendry French, a newcomer to Billy’s gang in Young Guns II (1990)

Jane Greathouse: “Patrick, I’m gonna part with a nasty secret. You used to make me hotter than a June bride sittin’ bareback on a depot stove. But I don’t share my bed with the law.”
Pat Garrett: “And I don’t keep with whores no more. So ain’t we both content?”

Doc Spurlock to Billy: “You rode a 15-year-old boy straight to hell. You rode the rest of us to our graves.”

Bob Ollinger: “I got 18 dimes in each barrell, boy. You ever see what a dollar and 80 can do to a $40 steer, let alone a cheap little crook like yourself.”

Billy the Kid: “Goodbye, Bob.”
He fires the shotgun loaded with 18 dimes in each barrel.
Billy: “Best dollar and 80 I ever spent.”

Scott Wilson as Gov. Lewis Wallace, willing to pay handsomely for the elimination of Billy in Young Guns II (1990)

Jenny Wright as Jane Greathouse, teaching the gentlemanly way to ask for a whore in Young Guns II (1990)

Viggo Mortensen as John W. Poe, a federal lawman chasing Billy in Young Guns II (1990)

Robert Knepper as Deputy Carlyle, trying to negotiate with Billy in Young Guns II (1990)

Leon Rippy realizing its Billy who has his shotgun now in Young Guns II (1990)

Emilio Estevez as William H. Bonney, under a pal’s gun in Young Guns II (1990)