The Left Handed Gun (1958)

The Left Handed Gun (1958)


Plot Summary

William Bonney - Billy the Kid - (Paul Newman) gets a job with a cattleman known as 'The Englishman,' (Colin Keith-Johnston) and is befriended by the peaceful, religious man. But when a crooked sheriff and his men murder the Englishman because he plans to supply the local Army fort with his beef, Billy decides to avenge the death by killing the four men responsible, throwing the lives of everyone around him - Tom (James Best) and Charlie, (James Congdon) two hands he worked with; Pat Garrett, (John Dehner) who is about to be married; and the kindly Mexican couple who take him in when he's in trouble - into turmoil, and endangering the General Amnesty set up by Governor Wallace to bring peace to the New Mexico Territory.

This was one of two films that Paul Newman was slotted into after the death of James Dean, the other being the more successful Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956). Here, Newman is a bit miscast as the young Billy The Kid as Newman was 30 years old at the time playing a character 10 years younger however he makes the best of it and does a credible job all things considered. Newman channeled a lot of Dean's acting style for the role and I think that served him well especially towards the end of the film where you see Billy's anguish over the things he has done to put him in the position he's in. You see Newman being very physical with his expressions of guilt and pain as he's on the floor with his hands to his face etc etc. It's very much in the vein of how Dean tended to emote in similar kind of scenes.

This is a pretty solid film though at the same time it comes off as being a little flawed mainly due to pacing issues. It's not the fault of the actors though who are all very good in this but rather the writing and directing. A good chunk of the movie shows Billy, Tom and Charlie living in Mexico after killing 2 of the 4 men who killed their boss Tunstall and they're made to look like drunken idiots. This may in fact be true to life but we go from that to the seriousness of the matter as Billy wants to kill EVERY ONE who was involved in the death of Tunstall. This is mainly due to how good of a man Tunstall seemed to be. The beginning of the film sees a tired and beleaguered Billy wandering alone and Tunstall and his men bring Billy in. Tunstall, even though he's called "The Englishman" was actually Irish as portrayed here. Nonetheless he took a shine to Billy to the point that Billy considered him a father figure. Keith-Johnston isn't in the film very long but the scene where he talks about the Bible and offers to teach Billy how to read distills very well the kind of bond the two men had prior to his being gunned down.

There is another father like figure for Billy in the form of Pat Garrett. John Dehner is excellent in the role as he portrays Garrett as a good man who's a friend to everyone but who at the same time can be a stern man with principle. He and Billy share a bond in that Garrett sees his younger self in Billy and wants to help him become a better person but it's Billy's simplistic morality of getting vengeance which puts him at odds with society and the law. As a demonstration of the respect between Billy and Garrett, there's a scene at a party where Billy runs into one of the murderers and they get into a scuffle to the point that Billy is about to kill the guy. Garrett sternly and almost fatherly talks Billy down to which Billy relents and tells the guy that he should thank Pat Garrett for being there. Unfortunately, Garrett's tenuous hold over Billy snaps as Billy goes over the line and in doing so Garrett becomes sheriff with the goal of taking Billy in. It's not something Garrett necessarily wants to do and in the end he expresses some regret about taking Billy in.

Arthur Penn directed this film and he's most remembered for the '67 film Bonnie and Clyde. This was Penn's first feature film and like the famed movie he would helm years later there's a lot to this flick that goes beyond a simple telling of the Billy the Kid legend. The feel of this is essentially a "rebel without a cause" for the 1870s and at the same time the movie challenges the genre conventions of Westerns as earlier films would paint Billy for being a hero going after the ruthless and corrupt people who killed his boss. Here though, we get shades of gray as Billy's actions have consequences which affect the lives of everyone around him. A great example of this is the character Tom. Tom is a guy who didn't even like the first killings and when there's amnesty declared he's happy to be a free man and wants to put everything behind him but he's dragged in by Billy in going through with the rest of the killings. Tom isn't necessarily a "bad" person but he was at the wrong place at the wrong time helping the wrong person. In the end he pays a price for his association with Billy despite at that point getting away from the life he's been thrown into.

Billy's simple Old Testament style morality only causes more grief for him rather than making things right. Even so, it's not like the Law isn't shown to have warts either. The people behind Tunstall's death are a corrupt Sheriff and his lackeys but we also see later on Pat Garrett understanding Billy's thinking but he has to uphold the law. He even goes so far as to tell his wife that he thought he wanted to bring Billy in but now he expresses regret for doing so after seeing how much Billy's being eaten up by guilt over the whole ordeal.

This movie as I said is a bit hard done by the insistence on showing Billy and his friends looking like idiots which means the film only comes into sharp focus around the last 3rd of the film. It's a movie that is a bit of a missed opportunity as it does have something to say and it even goes beyond challenging the Western genre as it foretells the turmoil of the '60s as Billy's way of thinking and challenges the mores of the day is very much what would happen in society as the hippie generation would rebel and push up against the Establishment.

In the end I give this ** 1/2 stars.