THE LEFT-HANDED GUN

US, 1957, 98 minutes, Black and white.
Paul Newman, Lita Milan, John Dehner, Hurd Hatfield, James Best.
Directed by Arthur Penn.

The Left- Handed Gun was the first film by television and stage director Arthur Penn. He was to make a number of successful films including The Miracle Worker, Bonnie and Clyde. Penn has been interested in stories of American folk-heroes of the west and of the gangster era: Bonnie and Clyde, Little Big Man, The Missouri Breaks, The Chase. He has an eye to the meaning of conventional genres. This film is based on a play by novelist and playwright Gore Vidal. It presents Billy the Kid in the traditional setting but makes him a hero set apart, a young misunderstood man, a man with a mission - an avenging angel who acknowledges the role of law but feels that he has to wreak justice. When this is done, he seems to have no other mission in life.

There are scriptural quotations, especially from 1 Corinthians 13 and Paul's observations on the transition from being a child to being a man, seeing through a glass darkly and then seeing in vision. This makes Billy the Kid something of a man of sorrows. More traditional presentation was in Billy the Kid with Robert Taylor, criticism of him in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (portrayed by Bob Dylan) and Michael J. Pollard in the debunking of the myth as Dirty Little Billy. Paul Newman was at the beginning of his career and is engaging as Billy the Kid as well as offering something of his tormented personality. The film is brief, shot in black and white but has quite an atmosphere of the west.

1. The popularity of Billy the Kid in American traditions, in films? The background of the West, the legend? The truth? The variety of interpretations?

2. This film as a serious interpretation, a reflective film? Gore Vidal and his interests, the structure of the film as on a play? Arthur Penn and his explorations of American outlaws? Paul Newman and his persona in the '50s - and later? An apt choice for Billy the Kid?

3. The use of the conventions of the western: black and white photography, locations, action sequences, the opening song, the atmospheric score? A more serious western? other differences from the conventional?

4. The situation of the opening: the West, cattle, the cattle wars, Billy wandering, taken in? Mr. Tunstall and his care for Billy? The religious tone with the Bible readings? Tunstall's trust in human nature, despite Billy's lies? Billy wanting to save him from the enemies? The ambush. the shooting? The effect on Billy and his decision to track down Brady, Morton, Moon and Hill? The initial shootout and the killing of the first two men? The consequences with the siege at McQueen's, McQueen's death, the fire? The repercussions for Billy and his further vengeance?

5. The portrait of Billy: the wanderer, his laconic personality, his friendship with Tommy and Charlie, the affection for Mr. Tunstall, his lies about El Paso, Tunstall being informed about the young boy murdering the nun who insulted his mother? The long sequence with the Bible reading and Billy's inability to read, the focus on the meaning of 'through a glass darkly' - seeing friends and enemies through a glass? Tunstall as father-figure (and later Pat Garrett as a father-figure)? His being shot? Billy on his horse after the shooting, mourning Tunstall? His reading 1 Corinthians? His sense that he had to avenge Tunstall - Tommy and Charlie against it, warning that it was against God's law? His decision that St. Paul said that there was a transition from childhood to being a man? His seeing his vengeance as a man's job? His drowning his sorrows in the dancing, the horseplay? Drawing on Pat Garrett? The bullets? The plan for vengeance? His drawing the plan on the moist window and the transition to the streets? Tommy and Charlie and their hesitations? His arguments about the law? The shooting, the subsequent siege and his fighting the fire and trying to save McQueen? His burnt arm and his gradual recovery? The return home? The friends and the toad sequence? The mock funeral in the hospital? The effect of the amnesty and his freedom of movement? The military men and the money? The fight? The raucous behaviour? The importance of Grant and his administration of the amnesty, Billy drawing on him with speed? The later challenge? Billy seeing his arm restored as 'he had come to life'? The talk with the girl – his emotional response to he yet the gestures of killing and strangling? The gun and Tom? The shooting the moon in the reflection? His setting up Moon? The death? The breaking of the amnesty? Going to Pat Garrett's wedding, the gifts? The dance,. his photo being taken and Hill's taunts? His shooting him? Seeing that his score was four and that he was 'clean'? The reaction of Pat Garrett? Tommy being scared and shot? The violence of Charlie being shot during the siege, his being called outside and coming through the door? Billy coming out with his arms stretched out like a crucifixion scene? The court case, the condemnation to hanging, his being in the prison, the taunts of Hill's wife, the young boy coming to talk with him, the escape. his death? The reputation of a famous outlaw?

6. Billy's friends? Tunstall as the father-figure? Charlie and Tom as brothers? The setting up of Moon? Charlie shooting Moon and breaking the amnesty? Tommy's reaction to Moon and his being shot? Leaving? Tommy's death, Charlie's death -wanting to stand up and Billy putting him out the door? His being shot through the door? The happy times, the parties, the reaction to Grant?

7. Pat Garrett and his reputation, his care for Billy? The build-up to his marriage? The tenderness in the film associated with Pat Garrett? The wedding, his reaction to the happiness, to the shooting, his previous refusal to be sheriff but his accepting it, the attack, Tommy's death, the talk about the hanging, the shooting of Billy? The father-figure executing the son?

8. Law in the West, justice? Morality - and scripture?


9. Moultrie as an informer. his continued presence? Grant and the amnesty? At the party, drawing on Billy? Billy having taken the bullets out of his gun?

10. The amnesty, the possibility of peace in the West, Garrett's belief in it. Billy hoping in it. Charlie's foolish breaking of it?

11. Western themes, the American heritage - and its meaning? The western legend heroes as symbols?