Young Guns II

Infobox_Film
name = Young Guns II


caption= original film poster
director = Geoff Murphy
writer = John Fusco
producer = Paul Schiff
Irby Smith
starring = Emilio Estevez
Kiefer Sutherland
Lou Diamond Phillips
Christian Slater
William Petersen
James Coburn
James Hall
cinematography = Dean Semler
editing = Bruce Green
music = Jon Bon Jovi
Alan Silvestri
distributor = 20th Century Fox
Warner Bros. (DVD)
released = August 1, 1990
runtime = 104 min.
language = English
country = USA
preceded_by = Young Guns
tagline = "The West just got Wilder"
amg_id = 1:55982
imdb_id = 0100994
|

"Young Guns II" is a 1990 western film, and the sequel to "Young Guns" (1988). It stars Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Christian Slater, and features William Petersen as Pat Garrett. It was directed by Geoff Murphy.

It follows the life of William H. Bonney aka Billy the Kid (played by Emilio Estevez) in the years following the Lincoln County War in which Billy was part of "The Regulators" — a group of around 6 highly skilled gunmen avenging the death of John Tunstall — and the years before Billy's documented death. The film, however, is told by Brushy Bill Roberts, a man who in the 1940s appeared claiming to be the real Billy the Kid.

While the film is not entirely historically accurate, it does show some of the key events leading up to Billy's documented death, including his talks with Governor Lew Wallace, his capture by friend-turned-foe Pat Garrett, his trial and his subsequent escape in which he killed two deputies.

Cast

*Emilio Estevez as Billy the Kid
*Kiefer Sutherland as Doc Scurlock
*Lou Diamond Phillips as Jose Chavez y Chavez
*Christian Slater as "Arkansas" Dave Rudabaugh
*William Petersen as Pat Garrett
*Alan Ruck as Hendry William French
*R.D. Call as D.A. Rynerson
*James Coburn as John Chisum
*Balthazar Getty as Tom O'Folliard
*Jack Kehoe as Ashmun Upson
*Robert Knepper as Deputy Carlyle
*Tom Kurlander as J. W. Bell
*Viggo Mortensen as John W. Poe
*Leon Rippy as Robert "Bob" Ollinger
*Tracey Walter as Beever Smith
*Bradley Whitford as Charles Phalen
*Scott Wilson as Governor Lew Wallace

Plot

The film opens with a young attorney talking to an elderly man named Brushy Bill Roberts, who claims that he is William H. Bonney (aka Billy The Kid), whom "everyone" knows to have been shot and killed by Pat Garrett in 1881. The majority of the film takes place in flashbacks as the old man recalls his story for the lawyer, who asks if the man has any proof that he is the famous outlaw.

Brushy Bill's story begins with the remaining regulators having gone their separate ways. Billy has become part of a new gang with 'Arkansas' Dave Rudabaugh (Slater) and Pat Garrett (Petersen). The state governor has issued warrants for the arrests of those involved in the Lincoln County wars, including Billy, Doc Scurlock (Sutherland), and Jose Chavez y Chavez (Phillips). With the help of Rudabaugh, Billy springs his old comrades from prison and they make a run for the border along with local farmer Hendry William French (Ruck) and 14 year old Tom O'Folliard (Getty), who Billy rechristens "The Prince of Pensalvania". After the escape, the authorities approach Garrett and persuade him to use whatever resources he needs to hunt Bonney down and kill him. Garrett agrees and, forming a posse, begins his pursuit of the gang.

Billy and his gang are continuously tracked by the posse, narrowly evading capture a number of times. They do suffer casualties, with Tom being mistaken for Billy and killed by a long range shot fired by Garrett's second in command John Poe (Mortensen). Additionally, Scurlock is mortally wounded after the gang is cornered and sacrifices himself to enable his friends to escape. Hendry, Dave, and Chavez flee to safety, but the latter is mortally wounded and remarks that he will know he is dying when he sees a white horse (a spirit horse that is said to carry worthy souls to the other side) riding towards him.

Billy is caught and taken back to be imprisoned and tried in Lincoln County. He is sentenced to be hanged by the neck until he is "dead, dead, dead", to which he tells the judge that he can go to "hell, hell, hell". Waiting for the sentence to be passed, Billy escapes with the aide of a female accomplice, who has planted a gun in an outhouse. The younger guard raises his gun, forcing Billy to kill him with regret. Hearing the shots from across the street, Bob Ollinger, the other guard assigned to guard The Kid, rushes to the scene. Billy uses Bob's own shotgun, which he had used to taunt Billy earlier in the film, to shoot him dead and then escapes to Old Fort Sumner. By the time he arrives, Dave has abandoned the group to make his way to Mexico, and Chavez lies close to death, only succumbing when he sees the spirit horse riding towards him. Billy is incensed at how his actions have led to the deaths of his friends while he has been largely unharmed. During the night, after taking refuge with a female friend, he decides to get something to eat, realizing too late that he is unarmed just as Pat Garrett makes his presence known. After a short dialogue, Billy turns around, forcing Garrett to shoot him in the back. Garrett shoots errantly, striking a distant pinata. In the morning, Garrett finds his horse missing, bringing to mind a conversation from earlier in the film where Billy had said that he would never steal a horse from a man he didn't like.

The film ends with Brushy Bill walking away after his story while the lawyer chases after him, having been convinced of the man's true identity. The epilogue reveals that Dave was killed once he reached Mexico and that, despite his claims, Brushy Bill Roberts was never credited as being Billy the Kid.

oundtrack

Emilio Estevez originally approached Jon Bon Jovi to ask him for permission to include the song "Wanted Dead Or Alive" on the soundtrackFact|date=February 2007. Bon Jovi didn't feel the song was entirely appropriate (particularly the line "On a steel horse I ride")Fact|date=February 2007; however, he was inspired by the project and resolved to write a new song for the film that would be more in keeping with the period and setting. He quickly wrote the song 'Blaze of Glory', offering it to Estevez for inclusion in the film. Bon Jovi then went on to write and record several more songs, working with drummer Kenny Aronoff and legendary guitarist Jeff Beck. "Blaze of Glory" was Jon Bon Jovi's debut solo album, released in 1990. It includes songs from, and inspired by, the movie "Young Guns II", including the US #1 single "Blaze of Glory" which was later included on Bon Jovi's 1994 compilation album Cross Road and the #12 hit 'Miracle'. The Approximate sales were in excess of two million copies in the United States, making it an album that achieved success both commercially and critically Fact|date=February 2007.The film's original score was composed by Alan Silvestri.

Reception

Box office performance

"Young Guns II" opened on August 1, 1990 in the United States in 1,770 theaters, accumulating $8,017,438 over its opening weekend. It finished third for the weekend, behind Ghost (in its fourth week) and Presumed Innocent (in its second week). The film went on to gross $44,143,410 domestically. [cite web | url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=youngguns2.htm | title=Young Guns II (1990) | publisher=Box Office Mojo | accessdate=2007-05-05 ]

Critical response

"Young Guns II" was poorly received by the majority of professional critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received 25% overall approval out of 12 reviews. [cite web | url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/young_guns_2/ | title=Young Guns II | publisher=Rotten Tomatoes | accessdate=2007-05-05 ] Roger Ebert, who gave "Young Guns II" 2 stars out of 4, stated that "the screenplay feels unfinished, the direction is ambling, but the performances are interesting." [cite news | author=Ebert, Roger | url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19900801/REVIEWS/8010301/1023 | title=Young Guns II | publisher=Chicago Sun-Times | date=1990-08-01 | accessdate=2007-05-05 ]

Audience reaction has been decidedly more mixed; the film currently has a 5.9 rating out of 10 at the Internet Movie Database. [cite web | url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100994/ | title=Young Guns II (1990) | publisher=IMDB | accessdate=2008-05-24 ]

Trivia

* The only actors to return from the original film are Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, and Lou Diamond Phillips. In reality however, neither Doc Scurlock or Chavez y Chavez rode with Billy the Kid following the Lincoln County War. With exception to Dave Rudabaugh, many of the gang members who did follow Billy the Kid both during and after the Lincoln County War did not appear in the film including Billy Wilson, Tom Pickett and Charlie Bowdre, the latter having been killed off in the original film.

* In the movie, Doc Scurlock (played by Kiefer Sutherland) died the way Charlie Bowdre had died. In real life, Charlie walked in front of the door and was shot; Scurlock lived on and became a schoolteacher and died in 1929.

* Jose Chavez y Chavez (played by Lou Diamond Phillips) did not die during this time; he lived a long life, dying much later in 1924.

* Henry William French played by Alan Ruck is a combination of Jim French and Henry Newton Brown both original members of the Regulators not depicted in the original film.

* Tom O'Folliard, played by Balthazar Getty, was an original member of the Regulators not depicted in the original film. The real O'Folliard was, in fact, a very close friend of Billy the Kid for many years.

*Balthazar Getty was replaced in 4 scenes by an 11 year-old lookalike due to an injury sustained from falling off of a horse.

* The scene where Arkansas Dave Rudabaugh (played by Christian Slater) puts a knife through Chavez' arm was added due to Lou Diamond Phillips' breaking his arm during filming.

* No one got away from the ambush by Garrett's posse at Stinking Springs. A few were injured, and Charlie Bowdre died. The Kid and his gang surrendered and were all taken to jail in Santa Fe, but Dave Rudabaugh eventually escaped and did flee to Old Mexico. Despite claims that he fled to Montana and led a "normal life", it is accepted that Rudabaugh killed two men in Mexico and was shortly thereafter beheaded. The Mexican government even took a picture of his severed head as proof that they had executed the outlaw. [cite web | url=http://www.legendsofamerica.com/WE-DaveRudabaugh.html | title=Dirty Dave Rudabaugh — The Only Man Billy the Kid Ever Feared | publisher= Legends of America | accessdate=2007-05-09]

* Jon Bon Jovi makes a cameo appearance as one of the prisoners in the pit with Doc and Chavez.

* During his escape from jail, Billy shouts out "Hello, Bob" before shooting Bob Ollinger, and "Goodbye, Bob" after killing him -- the exact same dialogue that the real Billy the Kid used during the incident.

* The real Billy never told a judge he could go to "Hell, Hell, Hell," after the judge sentenced him to hang by the neck until he be "dead, dead, dead." In fact, he sat quietly and, when asked if he had anything to say on his behalf, he kept his head low and answered with a simple "No."

* John Chisum (played by James Coburn) convinces Pat Garrett to accept a job as the new Lincoln County Sheriff. Coburn himself played Garrett in Sam Peckinpah's "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid".
* One scene was shot in Bisbee Az, and not in Old Tucson. During the opening a scene of a snowy street is used, the street is Brewery Gulch next to the Copper Queen Hotel. Coincidently Brewery Gulch was famous for having 100 bars along its three block length about the same time as the film takes place. Tombstone is less than a thirty minute (automobile) drive to the North of Bisbee.

External links

*imdb title|id=0100994|title=Young Guns II

References