Blaze of Glory - Flaming Glory
Blaze of Glory ( Young Guns II ) is a 1990 American western directed by Geoff Murphy . It is a sequel to the 1988 film Young Guns .
action
New Mexico in 1950: In the middle of the desert on the edge of a highway, a young lawyer meets the ancient cowboy William 'Brushy Bill' Roberts. He confides in him that he is actually the legendary gunslinger Billy the Kid . Seventy years ago he was promised a pardon if he turned himself in. He now wants to demand this. The lawyer initially dismisses this as a joke and then asks for proof, such as any scars. The old cowboy then begins to tell his life story, which can now be seen in flashbacks .
New Mexico in 1880. After the events of the Lincoln County Cattle War, Billy, 'Arkansas Dave' Rudabaugh and Patrick 'Pat' Garrett hired out cattle thieves. While Billy and Pat are good friends, Dave strives to become the leader of the gang himself. At the same time, they have to avoid being stalked by bounty hunters. At the same time, Josiah 'Doc' Scurlock leads a righteous life as a teacher and husband in New York until one day he is arrested for his involvement in the Cattle War and taken to New Mexico. There he meets his old friend Chavez again in prison , waiting to be hanged. When he is promised an amnesty , Billy faces governor Lew Wallace , which turns out to be a trap for his arrest, because after Wallace's departure the local authorities do not feel bound by his promise and want to hang on Billy. After he managed to escape, Billy, Dave and Pat free their friends Doc and Chavez from prison in a spectacular shooting.
While Billy is happy to have reunited the old " regulators ", Doc is anything but happy to have to ride with him again, because he wants to get back to his family as soon as possible. Pat Garrett feels the same way, who separates from the group to retire. In return, Billy takes Tom O'Folliard, who has just turned “seventeen and a half”, into the gang, as well as the farmer Henry William French, who is barely trained in handling weapons. Together they decide to take the fastest route to Mexico in order to escape their pursuers. In doing so, they make the mighty cattle baron John Chisum an enemy, whom they blackmail for money for services previously rendered. Chisum and the Santa Fe gang then hire Pat Garrett, to whom they offer full amnesty and the lucrative post of Lincoln County Sheriff if he delivers Billy to them. Garrett then begins his hunt for his former friend.
After young Tom O'Folliard is killed in a gunfight with Garrett, Billy confesses to his friends that he kept them going in circles all the time because he feels rooted in New Mexico and has nowhere else to live. This leads to an argument with Doc, who now also wants to break away from Billy. As Doc is about to leave, he is shot by the Garrett men who had surrounded the regulators' hiding place unnoticed. In a final self-sacrificing gesture, Doc, already fatally wounded, turns fire on himself to enable his friends to escape. Chavez is seriously injured and Billy is captured by Garrett. Dave Rudabaugh manages to escape to Mexico, but is beheaded there because the Mexicans do not allow criminals to cross borders into their country. Meanwhile, Chavez and French can leave for Fort Sumner .
Again Billy manages to break out of his prison, where he kills two deputies. When he arrives in Fort Sumner, he has to accept the end of the regulators when French also renounces him and Chavez dies of his wound. One night, Billy is tracked down by Garrett. That justifies his hunt for him as an act of liberation, both for him personally and for New Mexico. The country would never calm down as long as Billy lived. Without fighting back, Billy turns his back on him in the dark, whereupon Garrett shoots. After the funeral that follows, Garrett discovers that his horse has been stolen. He remembers a saying by Billy that he would only steal the horse from his best friend, which implies that Billy is actually still alive.
Seventy years later, old Roberts admits to having been scars (mentally) and moves back into the desert with his old horse. The lawyer is now convinced of his identity as Billy the Kid. In the credits it is stated, historically correct, that the responsible authorities did not believe Roberts' story and that he died a few weeks after the hearing in Texas.
Reviews
The lexicon of international films wrote that the film was "tongue in cheek" and "appealingly photographed". However, it shows the "typical shortcomings" of a sequel.
Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times that the script was "unfinished" and the director was "strolling". The performances of the actors are however "interesting".
Awards and more
- Jon Bon Jovi won the Golden Globe Award and the ASCAP Award in 1991 for the song Blaze of Glory . He was nominated for an Oscar and a Grammy Award in 1991 . Jon Bon Jovi also appeared in a supporting role.
- Balthazar Getty was nominated for the Young Artist Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1991 .
background
The film was shot in Arizona and New Mexico . It grossed $ 44.1 million in US cinemas .
Film and historical facts
Similar to the first part, Blaze of Glory is based very freely on historical tradition. Pat Garrett's hunt for Billy the Kid in 1881 is the subject of the plot, the hook of which is the story of old 'Brushy Bill' Roberts, who actually claimed to be Billy the Kid in early 1950. The credibility of this claim is generally considered to be poor, Brushy Bill died in December 1950. Furthermore, the film allows itself some simplifications of the historical facts, some of which should be mentioned here:
- After the end of the Lincoln County War in 1878, Doc Scurlock broke away from the regulators and moved to Texas, where he became a respected citizen and did not die of old age until 1929. As a result, he was not shot by Garrett as shown in the film, nor was he around Billy the Kids in the last years of his life.
- Tom O'Folliard is portrayed as an idealistic youth who joins his gang out of admiration for Billy the Kid, who has already been celebrated as a legend. In fact, he was one of the most prominent members of the regulators during the Lincoln County War (1878) and was instrumental in the Battle of Lincoln, among others. He was shot dead by Garrett at Fort Sumner in December 1880, days before Charlie Bowdre was shot.
- The figure of Henry William French is borrowed from the regulator Jim French, about whose fate after the death of Billy the Kid there are some legends. Like O'Folliard, French was involved in the events of 1878.
- Jose Chavez y Chavez survived Garrett's persecution and did not die until 1924.
- The outlaw Dave Rudabaugh (see Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday ), who was active in the American West , was actually beheaded in Mexico, but not until 1886 and not as suggested in the film in 1881. His death also happened after a shooting in Chihuahua, after which he shot himself has been. His head, which was then severed, was put on public display in Chihuahua. The nickname 'Arkansas Dave' has historically not been recorded for Rudabaugh, in fact he was called 'Dirty Dave'.
Web links
- Blaze of Glory - Blazing Glory in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Blaze of Glory in the online movie database
- Blaze of Glory - Blazing Glory at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Blaze of Glory - Flaming fame in the dictionary of international films
- Comparison of the cut versions The fourth from 12 - FSK 16 of Blaze of Glory - Flaming Glory at Schnittberichte.com
Individual evidence
- Jump up ↑ Blaze of Glory. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Roger Ebert : Critique. In: Chicago Sun-Times , August 1, 1990
- ↑ locations. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .
- ↑ Business data. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .