Someone has to believe in it

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Movie
German title Someone has to believe in it
Original title The Left Handed Gun
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1958
length 102 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Arthur Penn
script Leslie Stevens
production Fred Coe
music Alexander Courage
camera J. Peverell Marley
cut Folmar Blangsted
occupation

One must believe in it (also published in Germany under the title Billy the Kid - One must believe in it) is a western by Arthur Penn from 1958. Paul Newman can be seen in the lead role .

action

Billy the Kid wanders penniless through the prairie of New Mexico and is picked up by a group of cowboys. Farmer Tunstall takes him into his service and a friendly relationship develops between the two. When a group of enemy rancher shoots Tunstall from behind, Billy swears revenge. He kills two of the hit men and flees to Mexico with his friends Tom and Charlie . Here he meets the sheriff Pat Garrett , whom he promises to keep the peace out of love for Celsa.

Billy, Tom and Charlie return to New Mexico when an amnesty is declared. However, Charlie shoots the third Tunstall murderer, and the three escape again. At Garrett's wedding, they meet the last remaining killer. Billy kills him and Sheriff Garrett pursues the three friends. Tom and Charlie are killed by Garrett's gun before Billy confronts his pursuer. At the last moment, however, he flees the death penalty and is again harassed by Garrett. Finally, Billy finally gives up: he arrives in Mexico and gives Celsa his weapon. However, Garrett misunderstood the situation and shoots Billy.

background

The script is based on the television play The Death of Billy the Kid (1955) written by Gore Vidal , also directed by Penn with Newman in the lead role. One must believe it was Penn's film debut.

Reviews

  • Critic.de: Penn mercilessly dismantles the myth of heroism in his film and subjects the legend Billy the Kid to a contemporary interpretation. Newman's method acting and the psychologization of the title character make Billy a product of the fifties, which has far more in common with James Dean " ... because they don't know what they are doing " (Rebel without a cause, 1955) than with the usual ideas of a western protagonist.
  • Phil Hardy also notes that Newman is neither a romantic hero nor a villain, but appears more like "an inexperienced and withdrawn victim" . Penn's camera work is "innovative" and captures the characters "just before they slip out of the picture" . That gives the film a "surprising liveliness" .
  • Joe Hembus sees Penn's film debut as the beginning of an incursion into the western genre by intellectual directors who are more interested in broken characters, vacillating between heroism and rebellion, than historical accuracy.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.critic.de/filme/detail/film/billy-the-kid-%E2%80%93-einer-muss-dran-glauben-963.html
  2. ^ Phil Hardy: The Encyclopedia of Western Movies. Woodbury Press Minneapolis 1984. ISBN 0-8300-0405-X . P. 264.
  3. ^ Joe Hembus: Western Lexicon - 1272 films from 1894-1975. Carl Hanser Verlag Munich Vienna 2nd edition 1977. ISBN 3-446-12189-7 . P. 57f.