Gritty, grimy life on the frontier. I'm a history buff that concentrates on the personal causes of why people do what they do. Alienated New York teen, cultural shock, with cold, judgmental father and smothery mother, it's easy to see how Billy could fall in the loop of Goldie & Berle who listen and nurture him albeit perversely. The cool, well adjusted characters of the Golden Age of Hollywood Westerns, in their sanitary, back-lot sets likely bore little resemblance what the true west was like. In the same line, serial killers,(basically what those outlaws were) then as now, are troubled little wimps who validate themselves by destroying others. We may all enjoy Emilio Esteves'"Young Guns" portrayal of the slick shootist defying all odds, history's reality of the true Billy, such as the ambush shotgun slaying of Bob Ollinger,is closer the the character morphed from Michael J. Pollard's trouble interpretation. It was interesting to see the Italian Replica Walker Revolver converted to fire cartridge blanks. I wonder if this was the same prop used in True Grit & Outlaw Josie Wales, all movies of roughly same era,.
Review of Dirty Little Billy
