Rent Birth of a Legend: Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War (2011)
3.5 of 5 from 51 ratings
2h 2min
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- Synopsis:
Birth of a Legend: Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War
The story of Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War has become an American legend, and there have been movie versions by the dozen based on his short and violent life. But somehow or other the movies always get it wrong. That's why there has never been a definitive Billy the Kid movie.
Until Now
Director Andy Wilkinson, determined to tell the story the way it happened, called for a script by Frederick Nolan, the world's leading authority on Billy the Kid and the ruthless struggle for power and money the Kid got caught up in.
The Result is a Revelation"Birth of a Legend" is a story of the old West. The Santa Fe Ring plotting death as casually as smoking a cigar; John Chisum staring death in the face as he tells a young newspaperman how it all began. An Englishman John Tunstall, riding unwittingly to his sudden, brutal death on a lonely mountainside, and Billy the Kid, standing at his friend's graveside and vowing to hunt down and kill the men who murdered him.
Bonus Feature
"Birth of a Movie", features an extensive and detailed conversational interview by director Andy Wilkinson of author and scriptwriter Frederick Nolan, who draws upon the nearly fifty years of research he has devoted to the subject to fully and honestly answer questions on every aspect of Billy the Kid's life and death and the labyrinthine political treachery that lit the fuse of the ticking time bomb that exploded into the Lincoln County War.
The Betrayal - Part Two
"Birth of a Legend" is just the beginning; in Part Two, going before the camera soon, director Andy Wilkinson will bring the rest of the story to the screen with the same respect for history.- Actors:
- Shayne Armstrong, David Austin, Cliff Bendall, Adrian Bowd, Mikael Brolin, Alan Bucksey, Michael Fitzgerald, Tommy Johansson, Alexander Lindman, Peter Lundberg, Robert Madeley, Julian McDowell, David Morley, Robert Murdoch, Nick Murphy
- Directors:
- Andrew A. Wilkinson
- Producers:
- Andrew A. Wilkinson
- Writers:
- Frederick Nolan
- Studio:
- Safecracker Pictures
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Documentary
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Reviews (1) of Birth of a Legend: Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War
Academic Rather than Entertaining - Birth of a Legend: Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War review by CV
A short acted film followed by a long interview with no illustration. Even the film is mostly a monologue as a character tells a journalist his story of Billy the Kid and it looks also rather home-made (though I think it was filmed at Granada studios.) I followed all the facts and events as a best as I could, related by a gentleman (English, as it happened) who had devoted his career to the subject of Billy the Kid. Even so, I didn't really get the overall historical significance of what seemed to me another cowboy outlaw. The purpose of the film (if that includes both parts) was to sift through the evidence of the Kid's life and vindicate Billy the Kid and his associates and understand his actions from the point of view of the fact that he was very young (died at only 21) trying to survive in a land of virtual lawlessness. The expert said that it was the circumstances of not knowing everything that kept the legend alive: if all the evidence was known the story will have come to an end. Watch this film only if you want objective and detailed information of Billy the Kid: I would like next to watch an actual film of his life - even if it is doubtful in accuracy.
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