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Young Guns is a 1988 action/western film, directed by Christopher Cain and written by John Fusco. The film was the first to be produced by Morgan Creek Productions. The film stars Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney, Casey Siemaszko, Terence Stamp, Terry O'Quinn, Brian Keith, and Jack Palance.^[1]

Young Guns is a retelling of the adventures of Billy the Kid during the Lincoln County War, which took place in New Mexico during 1877–1878. It was filmed in and around New Mexico. Historian Dr. Paul Hutton has called Young Guns the most historically accurate of all prior Billy the Kid films. ^[2] It opened #1 at the box office, eventually earning $45 million from a moderate $11 million budget. A sequel, Young Guns II, was released in 1990.

Plot [link]

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John Tunstall (Terence Stamp), an educated Englishman and cattle rancher in Lincoln County, New Mexico, hires wayward young gunmen to live and work on his ranch. Tunstall is in heavy competition with another well-connected rancher named Lawrence Murphy (Jack Palance) and their men clash on a regular basis. Tunstall recruits Billy (Emilio Estevez) and advises him to renounce violence saying that "He who sows the wind will reap the whirlwind." Tensions escalate between the two camps, resulting in the murder of Tunstall. Billy, Doc Scurlock (Kiefer Sutherland), Jose Chavez y Chavez (Lou Diamond Phillips), Richard M. "Dick" Brewer (Charlie Sheen), "Dirty" Steve Stephens (Dermot Mulroney), and Charlie Bowdre (Casey Siemaszko), consult their lawyer friend Alex McSween (Terry O'Quinn), who manages to get them deputized and given warrants for the arrest of Murphy's murderous henchmen.

Billy quickly challenges Dick's authority as leader, vowing revenge against Murphy and the men responsible for killing Tunstall. The men call themselves "The Regulators" and arrest some of the murderers, but hot-headed Billy is unable to wait for justice. He guns down unarmed men and goes on to kill one of his fellow Regulators (later arrival J. McCloskey) in the paranoid (but correct) belief that he was still in league with Murphy. The men are stripped of their badges, which they find out about by reading a newspaper. That same paper also confuses Dick for Billy, showing a picture of Dick labeled "Billy the Kid", a nickname to which Billy takes an immediate liking.

While the local authorities begin their hunt for Billy and the boys, the Regulators argue about continuing with their warrants or to go on the run. One of the men on their list of warrants, Buckshot Roberts (Brian Keith), tracks them down, barricades himself in an outhouse, and Dick dies in an intense shootout. Billy appoints himself as the new leader, the gang becomes famous and the U.S. Army is charged with bringing them to justice under Murphy's corrupt political influence.

The gang eludes attention for some time, and Charlie gets married in Mexico. While attending the wedding, Billy meets Pat Garrett (Patrick Wayne) who is not yet a sherriff, but warns Billy of an attempt on Alex's life by Murphy's men that will happen the next day. Thus the gang packs up and heads off to save Alex.

While in the home of their lawyer on the main street of Lincoln, New Mexico an entire posse of Murphy's men appear and surround the house, trapping them. Anothe intense shootout begins as the authorities, led by George W. Peppin, open fire on the house. Billy once again shows his shooting prowess by first calling out one of the besiegers by name (Dutch Charley Kruling), then killing him with a snap long-range gunshot out the window that should have been impossible with a handgun. A ceasefire is called for the night, but the battle continues the next morning when the Army rolls in, accompanied by Murphy. They torch the house and Chavez runs out the back, causing Steve to assert that he has deserted the gang. As the house begins to burn down, the men come up with an escape plan. They begin throwing Alex's possessions out the windows of the second floor. Billy places himself inside of a large trunk, and when it lands in front of the house, he takes his opponents by surprise when he leaps out and begins to open fire.

Almost at the same time, Doc bursts out of the winding stairway leading to the top floor with guns blazing, followed by Charlie and Steve. As all the men make it to the lawn, Billy is shot twice in his arms. Charlie challenges the bounty hunter John Kinney (Allen Keller); Kinney shoots Charlie and Charlie fires back. Charlie kills Kinney, but in the process takes a few more bullets and dies.

Chavez takes the Army by surprise. Screaming "Regulators!", he rides in leading horses for the others. He comes from behind the army and jumps their barricade to get his extra horses to the surviving Regulators. Billy jumps on one horse as Doc gets on the other. Doc is shot as his girlfriend Yen Sun (Alice Carter), Murphy's Chinese sex-slave, screams; he rides over to her and picks her up, and they ride off. Chavez tries to get Steve on a horse, but is wounded and falls to the ground. Steve helps Chavez mount a horse and sends the horse off so Chavez can escape, but is then left without a horse and unarmed. He is shot multiple times by the Army and Murphy's men. He falls into a dirty puddle, dead.

Alex cheers on the boys as they ride away. The army opens fire on him with a Gatling gun and he is killed. As the remaining men ride away, Murphy hurls threats and curses after them, but is stunned when Billy turns back, beyond gunshot range of most normal men. Saying, "Reap it Murphy, you son of a bitch", he makes another impossible long-range pistol shot, hitting Murphy right between the eyes and killing him.

The final scene is a voice over of Doc explaining what happened afterward. In Doc's explanation, he includes that Alex's widow caused a congressional investigation into the Lincoln County War. Chavez took work at a farm in California; Doc moved east to New York and married Yen Sun, whom he had saved from Murphy; and Billy continued to ride until he was found and shot dead by Pat Garrett, who in this film is shown as barely knowing Billy. Billy was buried next to Charlie Bowdre at Fort Sumner. A stranger went to the grave of Billy the Kid late at night and made a carving into the headstone. The epitaph read only one word: "PALS".

Cast [link]

• Emilio Estevez as William H. "Billy the Kid" Bonney
• Kiefer Sutherland as Josiah Gordon "Doc" Scurlock
• Lou Diamond Phillips as Jose Chavez y Chavez
• Charlie Sheen as Richard "Dick" Brewer
• Dermot Mulroney as "Dirty Steve" Stephens
• Casey Siemaszko as Charlie Bowdre
• Terence Stamp as John Tunstall
• Jack Palance as Lawrence Murphy
• Terry O'Quinn as Alexander McSween
• Sharon Thomas as Susan McSween
• Geoffrey Blake as J. McCloskey
• Brian Keith as Buckshot Roberts
• Patrick Wayne as Pat Garrett

Historical inaccuracy [link]

• In the film, Tunstall is shown as an older man, and a father figure to Billy and the others. In fact, at the time of his death, Tunstall was only 24 years old - just 5-6 years older than Billy.^[3] Dick Brewer, Doc Scurlock, Charlie Bowdre, and Jose Chavez y Chavez were all older than Tunstall by several years, and Alexander McSween by more than 10 years.

• Although Lawrence Murphy created "the House" and the Murphy-Dolan Faction, by the time of the events portrayed in the film, he was dying of cancer in Santa Fe and had little to do with events in Lincoln. His younger partner, James Dolan, was in direct control of their faction's part in the war as well as their joint business concerns. By the time of Tunstall's death, the Murphy-Dolan business was insolvent and was soon forced to sell its assets, one of the main reasons for the faction's hostility towards the wealthy Tunstall.^[4]

• The character of Jose Chavez y Chavez was changed in several ways from the actual man - he was neither "Northamerican Indian" (but Mexican of Native heritage) nor a member of the Regulators, though he was a McSween/Tunstall partisan.

• Charlie Bowdre was not killed during the escape from the McSween home in 1878; he was killed by Pat Garrett's posse at Stinking Springs in December 1880.

• Aside from Chavez y Chavez, the other 5 main characters were original members of the Regulators; however, there were 10 other original members never mentioned in the film. Furthermore, when the Regulators rode into Lincoln for the big showdown in July of 1878 (the climactic battle scene at the end of the film), they brought with them as many as 30-40 armed McSween/Tunstall partisans, almost all of them Hispanic; as such, they enjoyed a tremendous numerical superiority over the handful of Murphy-Dolan men in town at the time. Until more Murphy men arrived on the second and third days of the battle, the Regulators and their allies held multiple buildings throughout the town. After these reinforcements took place - and particularly after the arrival of the Army - most of the McSween/Tunstall partisans fled, and the Regulators, with a handful of stalwart allies, were left trapped in the McSween home.

• The siege of the McSween home was real enough, although it was a fairly large one-level adobe building in the shape of a horseshoe, not a small, two-story wood-frame house. Thus, Billy was never thrown from an upstairs window in a trunk; when the flames in the burning home forced the inhabitants to flee, they simply ran out the back door.

• Alex McSween was indeed killed while unarmed and attempting to flee his burning home, but no Gatling Guns were involved.

• Murphy was not killed by Billy the Kid, but by cancer; only a few months after the Battle of Lincoln, in which he had no active role, L.G. Murphy died in Santa Fe in October, 1878, thought to be aged 47.^[5]

• Virtually all the information provided in the closing narration is wrong. Chavez y Chavez did not go to California to work on a fruit ranch, but stayed in New Mexico for the rest of his life, including a stint in prison; he died in Milagro in 1923, aged 72. Josiah G. "Doc" Scurlock married a Hispanic girl from the Lincoln area, not a Chinese sex slave (the Yen Sun character didn't exist). He did not go to New York, although he did leave New Mexico, spending time first in Colorado and then in Texas, where he died in 1929, aged 80. Finally, Billy the Kid was not "unarmed" when he was killed - conflicting reports suggest he was armed, either with a knife, or a gun.

Availability and rights issues [link]

Upon the film's release on home video, Fox surrendered its North American rights to Vestron Pictures and Video. Today, Lionsgate (Vestron's successor company) owns full rights to the movie except domestic television distribution, which under contract is handled by Warner Bros.

Box office [link]

The movie was a box office hit.^[6][7] It grossed $45.6 million domestically.

References [link]

External links [link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Young Guns

• Young Guns at the Internet Movie Database
• Young Guns at Rotten Tomatoes
• Young Guns at Metacritic
• Young Guns at Box Office Mojo