Overlooked Movies -- Wild Bill

If you haven't watched the trailer posted above, you should do that before you read what I have to say here.  Why?  Well, the movie itself is nothing like the trailer, which makes it seem like a rootin', tootin', lotsa shootin' show.  This is definitely not a typical western film.

Some of it is based on what you might know or might have heard about Wild Bill Hickok.  He's in Deadwood,  his eyesight is failing, and Jack McCall's there to do him in.  Aside from that, probably not much else is like you've heard it.  Not that something like that matters if you have a good story to tell.  

Walter Hill directed this one, and he had a good story.  I just didn't think he told it well.  There are a lot of flashbacks,  but that's not the problem.  The problem, at least for me, is that this short movie seemed four hours long.  The opium den seen itself seemed almost that long, in fact.  

The casting was okay.  Bridges is very good.  John Hurt, as the narrator, is a fictional character, but he's okay.  Ellen Barkin as Calamity Jane is . . . well, I really like Ellen Barkin, but here she's far to clean and cute.  She's not as clean and cute as Doris Day was in Calamity Jane (and there's a movie I should talk about someday), and she's foulmouthed and tough, but I think she was miscast.  

Let's put it this way.  I thought this was an interesting movie, and I'm glad I saw it, but it's never going on any list of my favorites.