The Left Handed Gun (1958)

Directed by

Arthur Penn

Genre

Western film, biographical film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 42m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.0 of 10 from 119 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young Billy the Kid gets caught up in a cattle war and is seen as a misunderstood troublemaker by the people of New Mexico. The film follows his clashes with Pat Garrett and the events that lead to his downfall.

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What happens

The Left Handed Gun is a 1958 American Western film directed by Arthur Penn, in his feature directorial debut, about outlaw Billy the Kid. It stars Paul Newman as Billy and John Dehner as Pat Garrett, along with Lita Milan and Hurd Hatfield. The film attempts to portray Billy the Kid as a misunderstood youth who got mixed up in a cattle war and was dragged down by the hostile population of New Mexico. The film is based on Gore Vidal's 1955 teleplay "The Death of Billy the Kid", which aired on The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse, in which Newman also played the title character. Vidal revisited and revised the material for the 1989 TV movie titled Billy the Kid. The title refers to the belief that Billy the Kid was left handed, and he shoots left-handed in the film, though this was a false conclusion drawn from a reversed photograph. The Left Handed Gun was released by Warner Bros. on May 7, 1958. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• Billy the Kid (1930)
• The Law vs. Billy the Kid (1954)
• Fugitive of the Plains (1943)
• Chisum (1970)
• The Parson and the Outlaw (1957)
• Billy the Kid Trapped (1942)
• Cattle Stampede (1943)
• Gangster's Den (1945)