Deadwood: The Movie
Deadwood: The Movie
Just wondering if anyone else watched the Deadwood movie and what they thought of it. For those who haven't seen it, it is/was on HBO. It was very well done but in spite of all the great reviews I read that said it was a great and long awaited ending to the series (13 years since the series) in my opinion, it was made so it would still be possible to do another movie or two - although it would be difficult to keep the same cast as they were somehow able to do with this movie. Anyway, originally, there were supposed to be three movies after the series ended abruptly in 2006. Maybe in 13 years we'll see another one....
Re: Deadwood: The Movie
I've been meaning to start a thread about this...
I didn't watch the original series when it was in production, but came across it several years ago. (After becoming a Timothy Olyphant fan from watching Justified) It became one of my all time favorites. (Though the language admittedly might not have made it for everyone.)
In the original series, while Olyphant was technically the lead, in my opinion co-star Ian McShane as the morally challenged saloon/bordello proprietor Al Swearengen really dominated the show. The rest of the cast, both leading and supporting was outstanding , as was the writing , direction and cinematography. The grittyness of the time and town was captured in a way that was spot on. (An approach to the atmospherics that became a template for a number of other quality "period" shows that followed.)
None of this was achieved on the cheap; apparently one of the contributing factors to the cancelling of the planned final season was the fact that it was a very expensive show to produce.
I believe another major factor in the abrupt end of the series was that the program had kind of painted itself into a corner; a risk that you run when you use actual historical figures...
For example, if Deadwood had been made using fictional characters, one of the resolutions of the series would have undoubtedly had the corpse of the evil George Hearst winding up being fed to Wu's pigs...
But since George Hearst was a real historical person, (who obviously didn't meet his demise that way) the show's writers didn't have the option to create that kind of satisfying finale for the audience...
Despite how much I enjoyed the original series (or perhaps because of it) I approached this 13 year later film with some trepidation...
The quality record of TV "reunion" movies for popular TV series is not an inspiring one. Frequently they are quickie deals just designed to make a fast buck. The scripting is poorly written, and the chemistry that once existed between the cast members is gone; it's like everybody involved just "phoned it in" to pick up a paycheck...
I'm happy to be able to say that Deadwood The Movie proved to be very much the exception to this. The show preserved the first class production values, high quality writing (with the unique blend of Shakespearean style lyricism peppered liberally with expletives that was the hallmark of the series dialog) and the performance and interaction of the cast members (they managed to assemble all of the major lead and supporting cast back for the project; except obviously for the late Powers Boothe, who played Swearengen's rival saloon owner, Cy Tolliver ) was so pitch perfect and true to the original, that were it not for the fact that they were all 13 years older, you would have thought they had started filming the movie the day after the last episode of the series was shot.
It's obvious that everyone involved with this reunion film project very much wanted to be there and brought their A Game...
My one and only complaint is that at a running time of a little under two hours, it was too short a goodbye...
I didn't watch the original series when it was in production, but came across it several years ago. (After becoming a Timothy Olyphant fan from watching Justified) It became one of my all time favorites. (Though the language admittedly might not have made it for everyone.)
In the original series, while Olyphant was technically the lead, in my opinion co-star Ian McShane as the morally challenged saloon/bordello proprietor Al Swearengen really dominated the show. The rest of the cast, both leading and supporting was outstanding , as was the writing , direction and cinematography. The grittyness of the time and town was captured in a way that was spot on. (An approach to the atmospherics that became a template for a number of other quality "period" shows that followed.)
None of this was achieved on the cheap; apparently one of the contributing factors to the cancelling of the planned final season was the fact that it was a very expensive show to produce.
I believe another major factor in the abrupt end of the series was that the program had kind of painted itself into a corner; a risk that you run when you use actual historical figures...
For example, if Deadwood had been made using fictional characters, one of the resolutions of the series would have undoubtedly had the corpse of the evil George Hearst winding up being fed to Wu's pigs...
But since George Hearst was a real historical person, (who obviously didn't meet his demise that way) the show's writers didn't have the option to create that kind of satisfying finale for the audience...
Despite how much I enjoyed the original series (or perhaps because of it) I approached this 13 year later film with some trepidation...
The quality record of TV "reunion" movies for popular TV series is not an inspiring one. Frequently they are quickie deals just designed to make a fast buck. The scripting is poorly written, and the chemistry that once existed between the cast members is gone; it's like everybody involved just "phoned it in" to pick up a paycheck...
I'm happy to be able to say that Deadwood The Movie proved to be very much the exception to this. The show preserved the first class production values, high quality writing (with the unique blend of Shakespearean style lyricism peppered liberally with expletives that was the hallmark of the series dialog) and the performance and interaction of the cast members (they managed to assemble all of the major lead and supporting cast back for the project; except obviously for the late Powers Boothe, who played Swearengen's rival saloon owner, Cy Tolliver ) was so pitch perfect and true to the original, that were it not for the fact that they were all 13 years older, you would have thought they had started filming the movie the day after the last episode of the series was shot.
It's obvious that everyone involved with this reunion film project very much wanted to be there and brought their A Game...
My one and only complaint is that at a running time of a little under two hours, it was too short a goodbye...
Re: Deadwood: The Movie
Good summation, Jim. One of the difficulties for Deadwood was that the gritty western is not enjoyed by a large percent of potential viewers (and never has been, reference the well-regarded and unwatchable McCabe & Mrs. Miller). But once you invest a few hours getting into the show, it is excellent, as was the movie.