Deadwood: The Movie

"Welcome to fucking Deadwood."
-Al Swearengen

Calamity Jane is as drunk as ever, missing her lover and still idolizing Wild Bill Hickock, the legendary cowboy shot and killed in the first season of HBO's Deadwood. Jane is so intoxicated that it is rather difficult to comprehend anything in her series of unusual inaudibility. According to series creator David Milch, Jane was a historical figure known for being too offensive, even for the men of the famous camp. In the film, as she mumbles on about Bill, that almost uncanny yet undeniably pleasant tune from a long-ago cancelled series begins. We're back in Deadwood, a town of saloons, muddy roads, and hungry pigs.

HBO has a long list of iconic shows, some more divisive than others, to be sure. But for about three decades, they have been a powerhouse of television art. Ask someone to name an HBO show, and surely you will hear The Sopranos, The Wire, Sex and the City, Game of Thrones, Girls, and Boardwalk Empire, among others. But Deadwood, which first aired in 2004, was abruptly cancelled after three seasons. Despite fans' hopes, the show's return never materialized. "Deadwood is dead," actor Ian McShane told Jon Stewart in 2006. It was dead, that is, until now in the form of a nearly two-hour made-for-television film to update audiences on the (at times) appalling characters of the show.

It's 1889, and South Dakota is celebrating statehood. The celebration includes the lawless town of Deadwood, the real-life mining camp of the 19th century. One by one, familiar characters walk back onto the screen, most of them rather unostentaciously. They're all grayer and greyer, as it were. An unmistakable example of the former is Doc Cochran, played by Brad Dourif in one of his best roles. His hair is now completely white. Of the former, there is McShane as Al Swearengen (himself a real-life figure), the saloon owner with terrible disposition and a pin-striped suit, now suffering from years of abusing his body with too much alcohol. The back and forth between Doc and Al during the medical examination if full of archaic language that Milch strives to resurrect from the past. It can be quite challenging to follow at times, so pay close attention and bring your dictionary. It's like Shakespeare but with the word "cocksucker" muttered every paragraph.

It's kind of remarkable that HBO was able to reunite nearly the entire ensemble, but most of them are here, including Anna Gunn, Molly Parker, Dayton Callie, John Hawkes, Paula Malcolmson, Robin Weigert as Calamity Jane, Jeffrey Jones, Keone Young, and others. My favorite is William Sanderson as E.B. Farnum, the scheming yet honest hotel manager and titular mayor of the town. E.B. must have moved up at least slightly in the world by 1889, and yet he's still costumed, well, modestly, to say the least. He has a humorous scene attempting to use a public telephone, whispering asides to himself about how he must act while switching to a thespian's projection of his voice to the "person" in the telephone box. Also returning to Deadwood for the celebration is George Hearst (Gerald McRaney), the real-life figure who at this point in the story is a U.S. senator (and father of William Randolph). His antagonist, Sheriff Seth Bullock (yet another figure from history and played by Timothy Olyphant), is there to make sure Hearst doesn't make too much trouble. Bullock still more or less has that cool strut, the one in which his arms are still and legs barely seem to move. He's a family man now, and an older one.

The film's story features essentially low stakes. Hearst wants to buy land belonging to Charlie Utter (Callie). Utter declines. And that's about it. Unfortunately for Hearst, everyone in town seems to hate him, with some wanting revenge for his past actions. They'll team up against him, and that includes the unique alliance between Bullock and Swearengen, who at one time had much more animosity towards each other.

For me, I was never quite as in love with Deadwood the series as much as everyone else was. I thought the first season was mostly fine, but I simply couldn't get past the first half of the second season. Fortunately for me, there are numerous flashback scenes from the show sprinkled about, bringing me up to speed. Deadwood the movie is very much like the show: quite interesting at first but requiring more and more patience as it moves along. There is certainly a lot more talking than your average Western, but that helps make it unique. The acting, though, is top notch, particularly Olyphant and McShane. The film itself is what it is, but that's probably what the fans want, providing as much closure as they will likely ever get.