An account of Billy the Kid that foreshadows director Arthur Penn’s later work, particularly the seminal Bonnie and Clyde, The Left Handed Gun undercuts outlaw cool with grim reality just as much as it undercuts grim reality with outlaw cool. The late Paul Newman has been classed as an icon of outsider appeal in countless tributes in recent days, and you see it here in his portrayal of Billy (a role Newman inherited from James Dean). Newman’s look gets steelier as the film goes on and Billy becomes hellbent on vengeance, but he never quite loses his boyishness, a disarming quality that gives his performance considerable power when the weight of a life of violence begins to bring the Kid down and “killing” becomes murder.
by Victoria Large | Source: Warner Home Video DVD
08 Oct 2008 8:23 AM | Submit Comment
