Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Jake Schur, Ethan Hawke, Chris Pratt, Leila George, Dane DeHaan, Charlie Chappell, Clint Obenchain, Chris Bylsma, Chad Danshaw, Ben Dickey, Tait Fletcher, Hawk D’Onofrio, Diana Navarrete, Samantha Zajarias, Vincent D’Onofrio, David Devereaux, Rachel Singer, Jenny Gabrielle, Keith Jardine, Adam Baldwin.
To be witness to history as it unfolds is an honour we are unaware of at the time, one perhaps made easier in today’s modern world by the wall to wall coverage provided by the media and the advent of the ever prying eye of the internet but in the past it was one of the preserve of those who actually saw it with their own two eyes and who recorded it for all to learn from.
The anonymous name, the undisclosed reporter has historically been one of the female erased by history but there was also the child, deemed too young to have a discerning eye but to who we arguably owe a great debt, for in their observation we arguably have a vision of the past that maybe simplistic, but it is also one immersed in truth and without prejudice.
To place such a view in history as a story, at one of the most romanticised periods in American history, that of the outlaw Billy The Kid and his nemesis Pat Garrett, through the eyes of a young boy is one that may be considered playing with history, corrupting the timeline even but what it achieves is something rather insightful, that of the uncorroborated witness, the ignored observer who can add another dimension to the written account of what truly occurred.
Even in the realm of the imagined meeting between Rio Cutler, played with an intense determination by relative newcomer Jake Schur, and William Bonney, the truth of their encounter, the chase between criminal and the law in a lawless land, there is still room for the romance to be further explored, the wild land acting as a ferocious partner to both men as they leave their name to the history of early north America.
Ethan Hawke once more shines in his role as Pat Garrett, and Dane DeHaan insurmountable ability to play the role of the disaffected and frustrated loner brings memories of his performance as James Dean in the film Life, one who understands that death is inevitable, even in the midst of immortality.
An underrated film at the time of release, especially in terms of the box office and yet one that deserves a more in-depth retrospective in how to construct a story which sees history not through the eyes of the perpetrator but instead through the observances of the supposed side-lined. A film that embraces such a direction cannot be faulted too harshly.
Ian D. Hall