A group of young gunmen, led by Billy the Kid, become deputies to avenge the murder of the rancher who became their benefactor. But when Billy takes their authority too far, they become the hunted.
“Young Guns” is not a rootin’ nor a tootin’ good time. With dialogue chock full of exposition, instead of being shown characters’ intentions, desires, and faults – the script tells us about everything and everyone onscreen. These constant remarks to explain what is happening showcase a lack of faith in the audience as much as the film’s belief in itself. While I appreciate that “Young Guns” is mostly an exercise in the late ’80s Brat-Camp, it does not age well. It seeks to build on the high school team spirit us vs them gangland mentality that was well-done in “The Goonies,” “The Lost Boys”, and even the more ridiculously reactionary “Red Dawn.” And reflecting on all these particular films, they signaled a rebellious ideology that was anything but.
“Young Guns” retells the tale of Billy the Kid’s (Emilio Estevez) participation during the historic Lincoln County War. Here, along with fellow Regulators, a ragtag posse led by Dick Brewer (Charlie Sheen), Doc (Kiefer Sutherland), Chavez (Lou Diamond Phillips), and Terence Stamp as John Tunstall. The Regulators form to battle a violent capitalist, played by Jack Palance, in a perfect bit of casting. While the rest of the cast is enjoyable, Esteves’ performance is anything but. His penchant for laughing after every murder or quip seems obsessive and compulsive, becoming quite grating. I used to wonder why Estevez was not in more films after his successful career in the 1980s, but looking back, he did not have the cinematic juice like his brother, Charlie, or their father, Martin.
Similarly lacking said juice is the script by John Fusco. His underwhelming writing is full of cliches, and the abovementioned exposition constantly reminds you that it was produced in the 1980s. While the iconic Regulator’s speech is forever entombed in the opening to the iconic Warren G/Nate Dogg titular song, words like “geek” are not timeless. I was surprised to see Fusco write the superb “Thunderheart,” which similarly focused on Western communities battling big business backed by the government. But in “Thunderheart,” it was Native Americans vs an active settler-colonial state subverting indigenous rights. The “Young Guns” are settlers themselves pretending to be rebels. Ain’t nothing rebellious about that.
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