n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

THE LEFT HANDED GUN Along with my new found fixation on Film Noir, I've also been rediscovering my great love for classic Westerns. I started out with The Left Handed Gun, Arthur Penn's 1958 treatment of the Billy the Kid legend. At the time of its release, The Left Handed Gun was hailed in Europe as a masterpiece, the first American Western of the anti-hero. Based on a Gore Vidal play the film bases its title on the only known image of Billy the Kid in which he seems to have his pistol holstered on the left side and holds a rifle in his right hand. As it turns out, that photograph has been shown to be improperly developed, leading to a mirror image which only made it seem like his holster was on the left side. Most of what we know about Billy the Kid today in fact suggests that he did most of his killing with a shotgun because he was such a terrible shot with a pistol. The film still has The Kid as a lightning draw and a basically good but wild and misunderstood young man. Historically that of course no longer stands up. It didn't quite stand up then. That one picture does not show the handsome and dashing Paul Newman type, but a scrawny bucktoothed figure who was probably called Kid because he resembled a young goat. The real Kid was probably a serial killer, who shot most of the men he killed in the back or in the dark and, unlike the other so called outlaws of the time, killed for no good reason other than to kill. The film itself feels dated and much more closely related to its B movie cousins than to the modern Western. It doesn't have the character of a Shane or Rio Bravo, or the darkness of a Oxbow Incident or the later Clint Eastwood movies. That's not to say that it's not a fun film to watch. It's just fun in that Audie Murphy B Movie way. The Left Handed Gun does not seem like a masterpiece today. Paul Newman's Billy the Kid does not seem at all like an anti-hero when compared to the anti-hero as we have come to know it. It's a fun watch. The Left Handed Gun is just not really a classic anymore. It's just another fun B movie Western. #movies #film #filmcritique #classicwesterns #thelefthandedgun

This Is By Far The Best Version Of A Billy The Kid Movie I Have Ever Seen ... Paul Newman Is Amazing As William Bonnie (Billy The Kid) ... He Does Bring A Sense Of Misunderstood Empathy To The Role (A Kind Of James Dean Feel) ... The Acting "All The Way Around" Was Excellent As Is The Scenery ... What I Liked Most Of All Is That I Got A Real Feeling That This Was An Accurate Outline Of The Bonnie Story And What I Believe Is A Much More Realistic Ending To The Legend "That Really Wasn't Much Of A Legend" ... The Director Arthur Penn Does A Marvelous Job Of Adding All The Little Touches That Take A Movie Out Of The Realm Of Fantasy And Makes It Just That Much More Believable ... To Fans Of The Legend, Actor Or Genre All I Can Say Is Check This One Out

'The Left Handed Gun' is a relatively obscure Western, having received a mere fraction of the attention given to titles such as 'The Searchers' and 'Once Upon a Time in the West'. Usually when I see a Western with a low number of ratings, alarm bells ring; I predict mediocrity and I'm often justified in my anticipations. 'The Left Handed Gun', however, proved me wrong. Paul Newman plays the legendary Billy the Kid, and his antics across the West have a lot in common with the great actor's later role in 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'. This is where the similarities end, however, as this title is a much more brooding film, which by the hour-mark has drawn parallels with Marlon Brando's biker film, 'The Wild One': both titles exhibit a society pushed to its limits in its accommodation of dubious characters, and show the inevitable tragedies when the lawful clash with the lawless. Whilst the lighter scenes are sadly unremarkable, the climactic points in 'The Left Handed Gun' are excellent, and the tensions culminate in what I consider to be one of the greatest conclusions ever shown in a Western. One of history's greatest antihero actors channels the excellence that will later define 'Cool Hand Luke', and this is not a Western to miss.

This Film has Many Interesting Elements that may Attract Viewers. Director Arthur Penn's Debut, Early Paul Newman as an Iconic Western Outlaw, and a Different Artistic Approach to the Conventional Western.However, the Movie is not the Easiest to Like. Penn's Flourishes are Welcome in a Genre so Ripe with Regularity, but Newman Overacts to the Point of Silliness and can Grate on the Nerves. In Fact, just about Every Actor Emotes to Extreme, Except Perhaps John Dehner as Pat Garrett who Strikes a Concerned Lawman's Pose Quite Well Without Words. But even He is Guilty of One Scene that is Downright Atrocious (the this is my wedding, this is my town part).Visually the Film has Many Interesting Shots and Flourishes, but Newman's Exaggeration of Body Language and Other Fanciful Displays that Misfire bring the Movie Down to just Above Average. There is Enough Curiosity here that is Worth a Watch, but Overall it is the Over Baked Acting that makes this a Disappointment.