In This ‘Billy the Kid’, Wounds Are Wounds You Can’t See


Known for more than 140 years of pop culture, 19th century gunslinger Billy the Kid carries countless myths and interpretations, a different Billy for the needs of each generation – pariah, victim, Everyman.

When another portrait arrives with Sunday’s new Epix series “Billy the Kid,” it also raises a tough question: Which version of the legend will captivate audiences in 2022?

The answer, as played by British actor Tom Blyth in the series, has a modern hero’s emphasis on backstory and identity. First of all, he is a poor orphan named Henry McCarty, whose parents emigrated from Ireland when he was a child.

Its creators hope it is closer to reality than past interpretations.

Series creator and showrunner Michael Hirst (“Vikings”), “19. “It’s absolutely amazing that a young man said to have died at the age of 22 in the middle of the century is still one of the most famous people in Western history.” said in a recent video call. (Some historians say Billy died at age 21.)

“I wanted to put pressure on that and explore why this might happen and whether it’s worth hero-worshipping,” Hirst continued. “I’ve decided to break the myth to see what’s real.”

“Billy the Kid” comes in a fertile time for the west. Taylor Sheridan’s “Paramount+”Saritas” and “1883” soap operas were immensely popular for their mix of drama and harsh frontier survival. On Amazon, “Outer Range” plays like a cross between “Yellowstone” and “The X-Files.” On Netflix, “The Harder They Fall” signals a return to glory for the Black western; The publisher’s film “The Power of the Dog” earned Jane Campion an Oscar for best director. There has never been more direction to go with this genre.

In that sense, it makes sense for Billy the Kid to go on again. With this change of genre, the most mythologized gunslinger among them is poised for another moment under the spotlight. This time it comes under the guise of sensitivity.

Judging by the legend, this may be the most unusual disguise ever.

“He wasn’t a saint,” Hirst said. “He wasn’t good. He did some terrible things. But he was an extremely interesting and, I think, extremely sympathetic person.”

Over the years, these qualities have created a buyer’s market for Billys on screen, aside from his many representations in books and songs – whatever his legend seekers choose.

In “The Left Handed Gun” (1958), Paul Newman plays Billy as a tortured young man, channeling the sensibilities of James Dean and Marlon Brando. Clu Gulager plays a handsome, guitar-strumming protagonist in NBC’s “The Tall Man” (1960-62). In “Chisum” (1970), Geoffrey Deuel plays him as a fast-drawing blank slate orbiting John Wayne’s John Chisum, bound by vengeance and honor. In “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid” (1973) he is played by a totally cool, grinning Kris Kristofferson as a man who doesn’t care about the world, even as James Coburn’s Garrett follows him.

Pictured throughout the eight-hour episode, this final Billy got off to a rough start. The series suggests that his father (Joey Batey) committed suicide and was unable to adjust to life in the United States. Her mother, Kathleen McCarty (often identified as Catherine in historical sources) is mentally stronger, and she and Billy are very close – with the female lead in Season 1. But Kathleen also faces challenges.

“It’s not the best time in history to be a woman or an Irishman,” said Eileen O’Higgins, who plays Kathleen. “This was a time when the Irish came to America in search of that American dream. The Irish flocked to them, seeking refuge in America, which was seen as a country that would be merciful, had opportunities, and where people could have dreams and goals and achieve them.

Instead, Billy’s family found nothing but hardship. Eventually, Billy travels to New Mexico and falls for outlaw Jesse Evans (Daniel Webber) and his gang. He kills a man in self-defense. He finds himself in the Lincoln County War, pitting a murderous Irish land usurper against a fledgling British businessman. The series has not been renewed yet. But at the end of Season 1, there are still many stories to tell.

This Billy, who has sinned more than sinned, is largely a victim of circumstance, cornered by life until his only option is to be shot.

Blyth said in a video call: “1. The Billy we’ve seen so far in the season is a young man who grew up with high hopes and shattered that hope. “Someone who was brought up with all the right tools to be a great member of society, and then society has other plans for him, obstacle after obstacle. He’s always trying to do the right thing, but he also knows that playing by the rules hasn’t gotten him anywhere so far.”

At the same time, he is an oppressed who sympathizes with other oppressed. They are comfortable with Mexicans and Native Americans, and find themselves guarding and defending against racists on both sides of the law (a trait that historical records confirm). As the first season concluded, he threw the outnumbered John Tunstall (Benjamin Sutherland) against corrupt cattle lord Lawrence G. Murphy (Vincent Walsh). He seems to have a more sensitive moral compass than anyone, including the people he shot with a gun.

“He was a child of immigrants and there was a lot of discrimination,” Donald De Line, one of the show’s executive producers, said in a video interview. “He saw what had happened, not only how Irish immigrants were treated in New York City, where his father couldn’t find work, but also how Native Americans and Mexicans who had come to the West and had their lands taken away. It was very disappointing.

“His parents had come here for a better life and quickly realized that wasn’t right.”

A 21st-century outlaw grappling with certainly more delicious, formative wounds for a time when we’re taught to embrace our personal histories and heal our traumas. Yet, whatever his trauma, the historical Billy was still a horse and cattle thief—and more importantly, a murderer. Most historical sources say he killed between nine and 21 people and shot at least one in the back. Not everyone whose families went through tough times in 19th century America had a body count this high.

“He was definitely a killer,” De Line said. But that didn’t mean Billy was bad. “It was a tough world back then,” he continued. “As for the West, the frontier was wild. Justice was often met with the barrel of a gun.”

And the show’s sympathetic tone fits with many of the popular culture Billy the Kid stories going back decades. De Line defended the show’s portrayal.

“I think our culture has always romanticized cowboys and outlaws living in the Old West – let’s face it, they’re cool,” De Line said. “The essence, the truth of the journey of Billy’s young life,” he added, of the plot of Season 1, “is so pristine.”

The facts in Billy’s life are no less pristine, some of which are still elusive. In one of the better biographies, “Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride” (2008), Michael Wallis states, “No one can say for sure when he came into this world, because his actual date of birth is open to debate”. The details of his death were also discussed – including the fact that he died for many years. After his reported death, several men claimed to be him. In more ways than one, he was an Elvis in the late 19th century.

As Wallis puts it, “While most historians agree that he was shot dead by Pat Garrett on July 14, 1881 in New Mexico Territory, there have always been those who disagree with the facts of his death”.

Even if there is agreement on the facts, some Billy stories lay them out differently than others. “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” focuses on Billy’s relationship with his one-time friend and eventual assassin. “Left-Handed Gun” gives us a Billy driven to hunt down the men who seek revenge and killed Tunstall, who is presented as the father figure Billy never had.

We don’t even meet Tunstall until the end of the season in “Billy the Kid”. Providing the TV luxury of a slow buildup, the series deals with the circumstances that make Billy far more than the actions that made him a legend. For creator and showrunner Hirst, which includes the movie “Elizabeth” and the TV series “The Tudors,” that fact is among the many facts that make the story relevant today.

“There’s no point in doing something like a museum with characters that don’t have anything to do with anything you’re worried about today,” Hirst said. “The more I researched ‘Billy’ and watched the news, the more I realized I was writing something that felt quite contemporary.”



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