Wild Bill

He was a legend in his own time...and for all time. Jeff Bridges portrays Wild Bill Hickok, the hard-drinking, quick-shooting gunslinger who lived on the edge. Hickok's amazing story is told with a stunning visual style and lightning-fast pace, illuminating one of the most exciting heroes of the American West. Wild Bill is "an action-packed masterpiece" (Paul Wunder, WBAI Radio). In the town of Deadwood, South Dakota, Wild Bill must face his most lethal enemy. A mysterious stranger (David Arquette) has arrived announcing that he will not leave until Hickok is dead. Wild Bill finds comfort in the arms of sexy Calamity Jane (Ellen Barkin), but he is haunted by the memory of the one woman he truly loveda longing that could ultimately bring about his downfall. As Hickok andhis opponent near their explosive confrontation, the stage is set for a powerful climax unsurpassedin high drama and edge-of-your-seat excitement.

Audiences overlooked this film, one of the better westerns in several years, featuring yet another terrific performance by Jeff Bridges, America's most underrated movie actor. As James Butler Hickock, he captures the sense of a man at the end of his career, one of the first media superstars who discovers that his legend is more burden than blessing. As he heads toward his final hand of poker in Deadwood, South Dakota, he flashes back to his younger days and the events that built his reputation, even as he copes with encroaching blindness caused by syphilis. Walter Hill blends action and elegy, utilizing a screenplay based both on Pete Dexter's novel Deadwood and on Thomas Babe's play Fathers and Sons. Wild Bill features strong supporting performances by John Hurt (as a Hickock sidekick) and Ellen Barkin (as the tough, lusty Calamity Jane)--but the centerpiece is the sad, manly performance by Bridges, who more than measures up to the part. --Marshall Fine