Welcome to Day 4 of Billy the Kid Week. I’ve been reviewing Billy the Kid movies every day. Here are the previous days’ reviews:
Day 0: Young Guns II 20th birthday
Day 1: Howard Hughes’ The Outlaw
Day 2: The Left Handed Gun starring Paul Newman
Day 3: Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Which now brings us to today’s movie review, Young Guns, which also celebrates its 22nd birthday today.
Young Guns was released on Aug 12, 1988. I was fourteen years old. I didn’t see it on the day of release, I saw it later that year. I didn’t know that much about the movie going into it, only that it was a western starring Emilio Estevez. I decided to see it on a lark towards the end of the movie’s run.
When I was done watching it, I was blown away. I had no expectations going in so this movie blew me out of the back of the theater. I loved it. I was especially in love with Emilio’s portrayal of Billy the Kid. He played the living sh*t out of that character. Also, the movie was full of action and snappy dialogue. I loved the movie so much I started reading everything I could get my hands on about Billy the Kid. I checked out library books about real life gunslingers and started reading western fiction including titles like The First Fast Draw by Louis L’Amour and other Billy the Kid titles like Anything for Billy by Larry McMurtry. It really shaped some of my interests during high school. I was even Emilio Estevez’s version of Billy the Kid for Halloween one year.
So, for the 22nd anniversary I sat down with my wife and watched this movie for the first time in probably 9-10 years. It was the first time ever for my wife to watch it. When I watched this movie last I remember thinking that I had started liking Young Guns II better, I thought it was more fun. I remember thinking that Young Guns was a little more boring than I remembered. Well, I’m here to say that my 10 years ago self was full of crap. This movie is anything BUT boring. I still love it.
