When you are so in love with movies and tv series (as I am – and I’m sure many of you are as well), you can really get drawn into the idea that what you are watching is vital art and thrilling entertainment. Though that may be true, it can sometimes lead us to forget that at its core, everything we watch is actually a money making decision – which makes sense, though it can cause film lovers many frustrations. Movies shelved due to political issues, sequels canned due to underperforming box office returns, projects never getting green-lit due to their uniqueness, beloved television series being cancelled before getting their just endings. . . there are countless examples of disgruntled and frustrated fans never seeing projects they have long hoped for coming to fruition (or getting a satisfactory conclusion). Yet, every once in a while, a miracle happens.
Flashback sixteen years and I was a movie and television obsessed teenager, bingeing numerous shows on DVD that have long since ended (somehow, Supernatural and The Simpsons are still there), one of which was Deadwood. A story like none seen before, it was western both traditional and modern, a cacophony of bloody good violence, foul language, entrancing historic stories and so much more. A show that opened firing on all cylinders, fans sopped up its muddy streets (and equally muddy characters), critics embraced every minute detail, and everything seemed right with the world. A few years later, all still seemed well in the world of Deadwood. . . until, out of blue, it was unceremoniously cancelled (after season three).
With rumours of one or two movies being in the works to conclude the series, nothing ever came. Years turned into a decade, and fans slowly gave up any hope that their beloved series would ever get the ending it so deserved (as did most of the passionate cast – even when HBO gave original creator David Milch the green-light to write a script for a movie in 2016). Yet, in one of those rare instances where justice prevails, Deadwood: The Movie arrived this past 2019 (thirteen years after going off the air), something I don’t think anyone (including myself) could truly believe.
Directed by Daniel Minahan (who made four episodes back in the day – and makes this movie look visually stunning) and set some ten years after the ending of season three, time has changed things. In its original run, those residents of Deadwood had little time to contemplate the past or future, so intertwined were they with the day to day living of frontier (pre American) life – including gunfights, murder, backstabbing, prostitution, general conflict, and pretty much anything else that you could consider amoral. They were healthy (at least moderately), sprightly, feisty and fully alive in this wild western landscape.
Now a decade on, things, they are a changing. The year is 1889 and South Dakota is soon to be entering statehood. Everyone we knew a decade earlier is still here (except for Cy Tolliver – as Powers Boothe sadly passed away in 2017), though they now have some grey in the hair, their wrinkles are more pronounced, and, let’s face, it, many of them are getting a little long in the tooth.
Though this town is not much more civilized (no less cursing or violence than before), their aging finds them in different situations. Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) is still in law enforcement (now a U.S. Marshall instead of Sheriff) – though is raising a young family with wife Martha (Anna Gunn); everyone’s favourite conniving bar owner Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) is in really poor health; former prostitute Trixie (Paula Malcomson) and Sol Star (John Hawkes) are nervous for multiple reasons as they expect their first child very, very soon; Alma Ellsworth (Molly Parker) is returning to Deadwood after a prolonged absence – her heart still very much tied to Bullock; rather unpopular George Hearst (Gerald McRaney), now a Senator in California, comes back to help welcome South Dakota into the statehood – with the ulterior motive of purchasing land from Charlie Utter (Dayton Callie) that hampers the progress of his telephone lines (big and lucrative business); while Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert) returns to find some solace by making peace with former love Joanie Stubbs (Kim Dickens) – who now runs what used to be Cy Tolliver’s bordello (in a depressed, fugue-like state). Also expect to see townsfolk Dan Dority (W. Earl Brown), Doc Cochran (Brad Dourif), Mr. Wu (Keone Young), E.B. Farnum (William Sanderson), and basically everyone else play some part in this old west finale as well.
Always beautifully written, this David Milch script is no exception. A tale of rumination on past, present and future (these three interwoven together to create a fresh story that connects to the original series), extra weight is added when you learn that its creator has Alzheimer’s disease. Not only is this a reflection on Deadwood’s past and concluding notes, but every word is Milch working through his present predicament. . . likely his final words, each character in a way is a synecdoche for the whole person – past mistakes, the love that we carry with us, yelling in frustration at God’s forsakenness, how things change yet somehow stay the same, and everything in between. Like all of his previous work, it is sharp, bold and creative, no greatest hits tour, but rather a complicated set of emotions that is neither sentimental nor sympathetic.
A bittersweet journey home (if only for a little bit), Deadwood: The Movie is a most proper concluding note for each and every one of its characters – old rivalries die hard, strained bonds remain somehow intact, they may weaken but are ever defiant, and some things just never change. There is a poignant beauty in its dichotomy, a future provided along with closure, a farewell along with stories that will continue in our minds, a brilliant intellect fading. . . but not before putting pen to paper and going out with a bang. Sadly, in Hollywood, not all good things come to a proper end, but luckily in this case, it does – so, don’t listen to Swearengen’s obstinate, “Let Him… fucking… stay there”, make the journey back to Deadwood. . . it will make you feel alive again.