Billy the Kid (1930) Film Synopsis and Discussion

Synopsis

A wagon train of settlers makes its way slowly across the vast panoramas of the west. Its leaders, cattlemen Jack Tunston (Standing) and Angus McSween (Russell Simpson), having found a suitable area of New Mexico in which to settle, discover that the land is unlawfully controlled by William Donovan (James A. Marcus), a cruel cattle baron who attempts to forbid them from settling. Nonetheless, Tunston and McSween set up a settlement. Donovan then sets his posse to murder the settlers and steal their cattle. On this frontier, only Donovan is the law, and the settlers are powerless to defend themselves.

Tunston arranges a meeting of the settlers to debate their situation, and Donovan's gunmen arrive to break it up. A stranger shoots one of the gunmen down as he draws his gun to shoot Tunston. The stranger is William Bonney (Brown), also known as Billy the Kid. Fast friends, Tunston hires Billy as protection. With his help, Tunston is able to expand his cattle ranch.

After six months, Tunston sends for his fiancée, Claire Randell (Johnson). Although Billy is devoted to Tunston, he cannot help his attraction to Claire, but keeps it restrained for a long time. Also new in town is the sheriff, Pat Garrett (Beery), who is a friend of Billy's, but wary because of his reputation as a killer. On the day of his wedding, Tunston is murdered by Donovan's band, led by Bob Ballinger (Warner Richmond), in front of Billy and Tunston's noble-hearted ranch hands, who are unable to save him. Billy swears to shoot like a dog everyone involved in the slaying.

In swift retribution, Billy guns down two of Donovan's men. Garrett comes to arrest McSween for the murders, and a gunfight ensues between McSween's men, led by Billy, holed by in McSween's house, and Donovan's boys aiding Garrett. A stalemate ensues. The men in McSween's house are without water, and Donovan hopes that thirst will drive them into the open. To prevent more bloodshed and spare his men from being burned out, McSween gives himself up. He is mercilessly gunned down by Donovan, who is quickly killed by Billy. In spite of Garrett's protests, Bob Ballinger continues the assault and sets fire to the house. McSween's men finally try to escape, but most are killed. Billy combs his hair, straightens his clothes, and bursts out of the burning house with a gun blazing in each hand. He fells several of his attackers and escapes.

US army detachments stationed in New Mexico arrive to end the violence between Billy and Ballinger. Claire, whose feelings for Billy have deepened, and Garrett try to persuade him to accept a ceasefire in exchange for freedom from the law. Billy, however, cannot forget the murder of his fatherly benefactor and refuses. He rides away and hides, knowing that Garrett will pursue him. Accompanied by Ballinger's posse, Garrett orners Billy in a cave and starves him out. Garrett will not allow Billy to be harmed and takes him to jail to await trial. Billy outwits the overly trusting Garrett and breaks out of custody. In the street he guns down Ballinger and rides away.

The wily Garrett deceives Claire into thinking that Billy has sent for her. Billy and Claire, reunited, declare their love, but Garrett has followed her. Confronting Billy, Garrett softens and lets them escape over the border into Mexico and freedom.

Discussion

Even a simple narrative of his short life (see below) makes clear why William Bonney is a legendary figure, and during his lifetime his exploits were highlighted in newspaper accounts. After his death, his story was sensationalized in numerous books, including The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid (1882), by Pat Garrett, and The Saga of Billy the Kid (1926), by Walter Noble Burns. Burn's highly romanticized version of Bonney's life, which characterizes him as a Robin Hood and Don Juan figure whose daring was never equaled makes for an exciting and dramatic book that was a best seller in 1926 and remains widely read today. Burns is credited as a writer for Billy the Kid and his book is obviously a major source of the film's scenario.

In his book On Film Making, director King Vidor writes that he had wanted to make a film about Billy the Kid for several years before the project was approved by MGM, though he does not state why he was interested in Billy's story. Vidor did not make many Westerns, before or after this film. However, the Western film In Old Arizona had been a big hit in 1928 and its star, Warner Baxter, playing the Cisco Kid, won the Oscar for Best Actor at the 2nd Academy Awards. Vidor may have predicted that the public would be eager to see more Western adventures of romanticized bandits, and that William Bonney's exciting life would provide excellent material.

Although the film romanticizes — and softens — Bonney's story, many of the depicted events actually occurred during the Lincoln County War, which took place in the New Mexico Territory from 1878 to 1881. The film reworks the personalities and actions of the persons involved in the history. Jack Tunston is based on rancher John Henry Tunstall, whose faction is depicted in Vidor's film as innocent, friendly, generous, and non-aggressive. William Donovan is based on James Dolan, whose faction is portrayed as greedy and murderous. Billy, who sides with the 'good' faction, and is forced into killing by the murder of his father-figure, is thus given justification for being a killer. To maintain this fiction, Billy's illegal activities unrelated to the Lincoln County War are not shown in the film.

Actor Johnny Mack Brown was only a few years older than the actual Billy at the time the film was produced. His soft voice, southern accent, and pleasing smile supply the necessary contrast between Billy's shy boyishness and his killer instincts. Wallace Berry portrays Garrett in the aw-shucks, easygoing manner that he assumed in many of his films. In On Film Making Vidor states that MGM finally gave him the go-ahead to make the film if he cast Brown, a notable star during the late silent era struggling to establish himself in talking pictures, to play Billy, and Wallace Beery, whose screen image was well-established, to play Pat Garrett and hopefully increase box office receipts.

Billy the Kid was shot in an early widescreen process that MGM called Realife Grandeur. The specially built Mitchell camera produced a 70mm black and white negative. In the lab the 70mm negative image was reduced to a 35mm positive print. The 35mm print projected by standard equipment produced a wide image that required a large screen. However, few theaters had the necessary wide screen, so Vidor shot the film with both 70mm and 35mm cameras so that it could be shown in both on regular and widescreen theaters. Vidor noted that the widescreen image was greatly superior for exterior scenes, and that the panoramic views in Billy the Kid were magnificent in 70mm. Even on the small screen of a television, the western panoramas impress with their size and depth.

Vidor saw Billy the Kid many years after it was made and expressed his satisfaction with it, calling it a fine motion picture. His satisfaction is reasonable. Only his third talkie, Billy the Kid demonstrates Vidor's mastery of integrating dialogue with action, which many silent film directors had not mastered by 1930. The story is interesting, well-presented and moves briskly. The acting is also credible. The characters speak naturally and conversationally. Some of the comedy is forced and tiresome, but the death of principle comic Roscoe Ates is surprising and moving. The film's principal disappointment is it's feeble ending. The death of Billy at the hands of Pat Garrett is the expected, historically accurate conclusion. The film firmly establishes their friendship, and Garrett's distress after killing Billy would provide an appropriate climax. Instead, the final scene, with Billy riding away, Garrett deliberately shooting over his head, and Claire preparing to follow Billy in her buggy, is an inadequate and abrupt conclusion. Apparently, the death of Billy would have been too distressing a conclusion for 1930s audiences. In its review of the film, Variety points out the dislike of audiences for unpleasant endings, stating, [Studios are] still afraid of those cold finishes, and not without reason.

Contemporary reviews for Billy the Kid were mixed. Mordaunt Hall, writing for The New York Times, praised the effectiveness of the Realife widescreen process. However, the picture is chiefly noteworthy for this enlarged screen idea, for the story is merely a moderately entertaining and often unconvincing Western melodrama. Although he praises much of the cast, including Brown and Beery, Hall states that the story is somewhat muddled.

In its review of the film, Variety discusses the Realife process and predicts that the film will do above-average in the theaters where it is enlarged. For theaters where it is shown in standard size, the picture is just another western, not a good one. He writes that the film consists of a series of gun battles and a couple of personal encounters. These scenes are as spasmodic as the continuity. The most important action sequences stand up, but the connecting links are weak…Minus Realife it looks as though the youngsters will like Billy the Kid, but there's lttle or no chance that the adolescents or their elders will be particularly interested…No punch names in the cast.

William H. Bonney, Billy the Kid

The year and place of birth of William H. Bonney (birth name William Henry McCarty, Jr.) are not definitely known, but he was probably born in 1859, possibly in New York City. His father died (or left his family) when Billy was a small child. During his childhood, his mother moved her family frequently, finally settling in New Mexico, where she died of tuberculosis in 1874. In 1875, Billy, arrested for stealing, made his first jail escape.

In the Arizona Territory in early 1877, after months of horse stealing, Billy was arrested and escaped jail the same evening. In August, after words and a tussle with a blacksmith named Cahill, Billy shot and killed him. A coroner's inquest found the killing criminal, and Billy fled to New Mexico Territory.

In New Mexico, Billy was hired onto the ranch of John Tunstall, an English cattle rancher and merchant. Working for Tunstall, Billy became involved in the Lincoln County War, a conflict between the entrenched faction of rancher and merchant, James Dolan, and his partner, Lawrence Murphy, and the newly arrived faction of John Tunstall and his partner, Alexander McSween. On February 18, 1878, Tunstall was murdered by a posse sent out by Dolan and Murphy. William J. Brady, the sheriff of Lincoln County, was with the posse. Billy, loyal to the memory of Tunstall, joined Tunstall's ranch hands in capturing and killing Dolan men involved in Tunstall's murder. In April, Billy and the Tunstall men ambushed and killed Sheriff Brady and his deputy on the main street of Lincoln. More killings ensued as Tunstall was revenged. In July, Billy, McSween, and other men were trapped in McSween's house by a posse that included Dolan men and US cavalry soldiers stationed in New Mexico. After a five-day siege in which McSween was killed, Billy escaped. This event ended the Lincoln County War in Dolan's favor.

In March, 1879, the governor promised Billy amnesty if he surrendered to Lincoln County authorities and testified about the events of the Lincoln County War. Billy's testimony led to the indictment of Dolan who was acquitted. Three months later, Billy remained in jail and had not received his pardon. Waiting no longer, he escaped and rode away. Over the next year and a half, Billy kept busy rustling, gambling, and avoiding arrest.

In November, 1880, Pat Garrett, bartender and buffalo hunter, was elected the sheriff of Lincoln County. In December, the governor put out a $500 reward for the Billy the Kid's capture. A few days later, Garrett and his posse trapped Billy and other rustlers in a stone cabin. While Garrett and Billy talked, the posse cooked breakfast. Garrett invited the Kid to eat, and the hungry Kid and his cohorts surrendered. The Kid was tried in April, 1881, for the murder of Sheriff Brady, convicted, and sentenced to hang. Moved to Lincoln for his hanging and guarded in the courthouse, Billy obtained a gun, killed his two guards, and escaped.

On July 14, 1881, Garrett tracked Billy to a house in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. That night, Billy entered a darkened room and, realizing that someone was present asked, Quien es? Garrett drew his gun and fired. Billy the Kid was dead at age 22.