Genres
1988
Directed by
Christopher Cain
Written by
John Fusco
Cast
Emilio Estevez .... William H. Bonney
Kiefer Sutherland .... Josiah Gordon 'Doc' Scurlock
Lou Diamond Phillips .... Jose' Chavez y Chavez
Charlie Sheen .... Richard Brewer
Dermot Mulroney .... Dirty Steve Stephens
Casey Siemaszko .... Charley Bowdre
Terence Stamp .... John Tunstall
Jack Palance .... Lawrence G. Murphy
Terry O'Quinn .... Alex McSween
Sharon Thomas .... Susan McSween
Geoffrey Blake .... William J. McCloskey
Alice Carter .... Yen Sun
Brian Keith .... Buckshot Roberts
Thomas Callaway .... Texas Joe Grant (as Tom Callaway)
Patrick Wayne .... Patrick Floyd 'Pat' Garrett
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Which of these actors will be first to
win an Oscar? |
I never saw Young Guns in the theatres during its release in 1988, I caught this film on TV a few years later and loved every minute of it. It was a western with a modern twist to it. It could almost be described as a rock 'n' roll western.
The film tells the story of John Tunstall's (Terence Stamp) group of regulators, hired outlaws that work his ranch, look after his property, and "regulate" his belongings against his competitor Lawrence G. Murphy (Jack Palance) and his Santa Fe Ring. The Regulators are made up of six young men: William H. Bonney a.k.a. Billy The Kid (Emilio Estevez), Doc Scurlock (Kiefer Sutherland), Chavez y Chavez (Lou Diamond Phillips), Dick Brewer (Charlie Sheen), Dirty Steve Stephens (Dermot Mulroney), and Charley Bowdre (Casey Siemaszko).
Murphy, an all around evil businessman, wants to keep his monopoly of the beef market in New Mexico. He decides to eliminate the competition by murdering John Tunstall with the aid of his Santa Fe Ring (which includes the sheriff). Witnessing the murder, the regulators swear revenge. They get deputised to bring the men who committed the murder to justice, but instead go on a killing spree until every man of the Santa Fe Ring is dead. The news hits the governor of the regulator's actions and he revokes their deputy status. Now they are on the run not only Murphy's men but also the law!
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Emilio "The Total
Package" Estevez |
This film is one of my favourite guilty pleasures and I will admit I owned the original standard DVD release. I like this film so much I decided to double dip and get this new Special Edition that Artisan have put out. Now I like most of the SEs that Artisan have released (T2, Reservoir Dogs, the Rambo Trilogy, to name a few), but I dislike their strategy. I have double- and sometimes triple-dipped, almost always at the hand of Artisan. They are notorious for re-issuing disc after disc. I should be angry but I can forgive Artisan, mainly because their prices are so sweet. Young Guns SE cost me under US$10, if most SE releases cost that I'd happily double dip without leaving a sour taste in my mouth. But in saying that, I hope that this is the last Young Guns DVD we see (until the next format comes out anyway).
All that said and done Young Guns is a nice piece of brainless popcorn entertainment. The key here is to have fun and not take it seriously because there are a lot of historical inaccuracies in this film (the 80's haircuts, contemporary dialogue, and of course the soundtrack). But when you get past this you'll be in for an enjoyable 102 minute ride that will hopefully leave a smile on your face.
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Kiefer, his mother thought
he was cute. |
So what makes this film so much fun? Well this can be attributed to the fresh way the director (Christopher Cain) looked at this film. He managed to take what was then a dead genre (the western) and revamp it with a hip young cast that resulted in a very stylish overall focus. Each actor compliments the other and makes for some funny banter and great moments; like the scene when they get high on peyote. The appeal of the film also transcended the sexes as it appealed to both men and women, the guys got the sense of adventure, machismo, and guns, while the girls got Emilio, Charlie, Kiefer, etc, etc. This resulted in a successful run at the box office and a sequel in 1990 (which is just as good, if not better, than the original).
Finger_Of_DOOM's reviews also appear on
DVD Compare, where they include details of the DVD release. For this review click
here.
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