In the golden age of Hollywood, films that glorified old West outlaws were common and Billy the Kid and Jesse James were often the subjects in these movies. In all these films, the actual lives of the bandits were rather unimportant and they were mostly fiction. Here with "Billy the Kid" (1941), once again they stray very far from the real story. The most obvious is choosing Robert Taylor for the role--and hearing everyone call him 'Kid' seemed ludicrous. Compared to the only known photo of Billy, Taylor looks practically nothing like him and the well-spoken and urbane actor seemed like an odd choice--especially as he was just too old for the part. Of course, having folks like Roy Rogers and Audie Murphy looked little like him yet they also played him! Heck, considering that it didn't matter, I could have just as soon seen Keye Luke or Willie Best play the guy!
The film supposedly follows Billy's career--his path to becoming a wanted man. There's some nonsense about a friend of his being murdered and he must then oppose some old friend who stands on the wrong side in the conflict. It's all reasonably well acted, mildly interesting and looked nice in color. BUT, historically speaking it was just nonsense. And, as a retired history teacher, I just cannot recommend this bit of 'historic license' (i.e, a total lie). Watchable but wrong.
The film supposedly follows Billy's career--his path to becoming a wanted man. There's some nonsense about a friend of his being murdered and he must then oppose some old friend who stands on the wrong side in the conflict. It's all reasonably well acted, mildly interesting and looked nice in color. BUT, historically speaking it was just nonsense. And, as a retired history teacher, I just cannot recommend this bit of 'historic license' (i.e, a total lie). Watchable but wrong.