Wild Bill | Rotten Tomatoes

Wild Bill

R

Released Dec 1, 1995

1h 37m

Western

Action

Biography

Drama

List

46%

Tomatometer

28 Reviews

27%

Audience Score

5,000+ Ratings

Gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok (Jeff Bridges) travels the frontier, gaining fame and enemies in roughly equal measure. He sometimes meets up with his friend and occasional lover, Calamity Jane (Ellen Barkin), and he headlines for awhile in a traveling circus. Along the way, he meets Susannah (Diane Lane), his one true love, but spurns her for the outlaw life. With his health deteriorating, Bill rides into Deadwood, S.D., as his past catches up to him.

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Critics Consensus

Crowded with talent on either side of the camera, Wild Bill shoots itself in the foot with a surprisingly muddled take on the story of the titular folk hero.

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Peter Rainer

Los Angeles Magazine

Wild Bill, starring Jeff Bridges, is Walter Hill’s best film in years. It’s a movie about the self-destructive power of myth. By the end, Hill makes that self-destruction seem like the archetypal American story.

Aug 9, 2022

Full Review

Marjorie Baumgarten

Austin Chronicle

Rated: 2/5

May 1, 2005

Full Review

Mick LaSalle

San Francisco Chronicle

Rated: 1/4

Jun 18, 2002

Full Review

Mitchell Beaupre

Paste Magazine

Jeff Bridges exquisitely captures this roaming, morose existence, this juxtaposition between the stature of an icon and the elegiac crawl towards death that we follow him on.

Rated: 8/10

Sep 29, 2023

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Jeff Bridges delivers an intense performance, but an animated Ellen Barkin seems to have wandered over from the set of a sitcom.

Rated: 2.5/4

Sep 19, 2021

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

Considering Walter Hill's formidable filmography, Wild Bill hasn't aged as well as some of the auteur's progressively inclined titles, but is still worth a look for the expected technical and narrative proficiencies.

Rated: 2.5/5

Sep 8, 2020

Full Review

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Jelisije J

This movie could have done a montage of the legend Wild Bill killings to save a good amount of run time and help the pacing of this film.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

05/31/23

Full Review

steve d

Incompetent and untruthful.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Meh...after the success of Tombstone, this should have been huge. Big cast of stars, 30 million dollar budget, names in Production...but it is terrible. Watch the ending credits to learn why...the studios were ripped off with a grossly padded list of people doing each other's work. This was a cash grab, pure and simple. Pitch the money men with "the next Tombstone", hire an acclaimed cast, but to Hell with actually making something timeless and special, just get the money and hope the public ci ers us. What a sad sad mess...some people should be ashamed.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Decent cinematography, production design and makeup, consequently destroyed by soapish dialogue, overacting, mistaken casting and nothing too much to do with actual history, in what basically is a Hollywood mishmash where the legend of Wild Bill Hickok's last living days is made into a parody. Kudos to the respective consultants for getting some true effects, and the languages for Lakota and Cheyenne characters right.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Honestly, I found Jeff Bridges insufferable in this movie - not Wild Bill, but Jeff Bridges as "Wild Bill". No character to center around - just a story at a distance. Very uninvitingly directed. By yhe end, I just wanted David Arquette to get it over with.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It's ambitious, but it's a little too muddy of a movie. It tries to cram too much of Wild Bill's story into too little time. Rushing through events, just to get to the conclusion we're all too familiar with. As such, you're not quite left with enough time to connect with these characters or events. Still, Bridges is great in the role and Hill delivers some dynamic Western action.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

09/08/20

Full Review

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Walter Hill

Director

Jeff Bridges

James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok

Ellen Barkin

Calamity Jane

John Hurt

Charley Prince

Diane Lane

Susannah Moore

David Arquette

Jack McCall

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Wild Bill: Official Clip - Forgive Him

2:06

Wild Bill: Official Clip - McCall's Mother

2:46

Wild Bill: Official Clip - Friendly Fire

2:36

Wild Bill: Official Clip - A Sentimental Gesture

2:06

Wild Bill: Official Clip - Goodbye, Jack

3:05

Wild Bill: Official Clip - Wheelchair Showdown

3:24

Wild Bill: Official Clip - This Ain't About No Time Piece

2:40

Wild Bill: Official Clip - Threatening to Kill Bill

1:21

Wild Bill: Official Clip - Make Your Move, Jack

1:05

Wild Bill: Official Clip - Saloon Brawl

2:13

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Synopsis

Gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok (Jeff Bridges) travels the frontier, gaining fame and enemies in roughly equal measure. He sometimes meets up with his friend and occasional lover, Calamity Jane (Ellen Barkin), and he headlines for awhile in a traveling circus. Along the way, he meets Susannah (Diane Lane), his one true love, but spurns her for the outlaw life. With his health deteriorating, Bill rides into Deadwood, S.D., as his past catches up to him.

Director: Walter Hill
Producer: Richard D. Zanuck, Lili Fini Zanuck
Screenwriter: Walter Hill
Production Co: United Artists, Zanuck Company
Rating: R
Genre: Western, Action, Biography, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 1, 1995, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 30, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $2.1M
Runtime: 1h 37m
Sound Mix: Surround

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