Putting into words ones reverence for a television show that is admired mostly for its own artistry with language is difficult to accomplish with proper respect. It was as vulgar as it was poetic. It was as dirty as it was beautiful.
So after deleting a few dozen paragraphs of me basically channeling my inner Chris Farley Show and slobbering over why I liked the series and the nostalgia of being able to return to Deadwood with the recent movie, just thought I’d share a couple articles I’ve recently found about two of the people that make Deadwood what it is: a feature about creator David Milch and an interview with lead actor Timothy Olyphant. The words in these articles are far more informative and entertaining than what I can spit out below, but should you be interested in what I thought of the movie, proceed.
The return to Deadwood for a two hour movie was both heartwarming and heartbreaking for me. It was disappointing that it only had a three season run, there was more story to tell, more time to be spent in this world. Some shows stick around far too long (Sopranos), others just about right (Breaking Bad), and others too soon (Deadwood). It’s one thing to go out on the top of your game, leave them wanting more. But the way they were unceremoniously unplugged on this show, it felt wrong.
And then, when the news that the movie was finally happening, in the back of my mind I wondered if they waited too long. Could they possibly pick up where they left off and not miss a beat, especially with a show with dialogue with rhythms like this one? Will it finally tie a bow on the whole package, or will it be something that should have been better left on the shelf? I’m sure everyone involved in making the show had similar trepidation entering the project.
But then reading the story about David Milch and his struggles with Alzheimer’s, makes you approach the movie in an entirely different way than perhaps just returning to a show for nostalgia’s sake. You can see his personal health struggle in the script, both in a particular characters story, and also how while you can hear echoes of old Deadwood, it wasn’t quite as sharp as it once was. I wonder if the two hour movie time constraint as opposed to the 10 episode story arc that allowed a more slow burn played into this just as much.
“As best I understand it, which is minimally, I have a deterioration in the organization of my brain,” he says. “And it’s progressive. And in some ways discouraging. In more than some ways — in every way I can think of.”
David milch, vulture.com
Given this information of the state of Milch’s mind and health, and the requirements that for whatever their motivations HBO laid down pertaining to curbing his influence on the set and tendencies to rewrite scenes on the fly, you can see why the polish wasn’t there in the words spoken by the actors.
But the spirit was. Robin Weigert’s Calamity Jane in particular seemed to not miss a beat and picked up right where she left off. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so masterfully play an intoxicated being. Dayton Callie’s Charlie Utter was always one of the more respectable characters, which on a show full of flawed characters saying one is the least flawed is still saying something.
Gerald McRaney’s George Hearst was just as ruthless and morally evil as previously encountered. But he was an example of performance saving writing in many cases. A few too many scenes you had to wonder if Milch was at the top of his game, would that scene as shot have seen the light of day, or would David take a moment to think through and make the slightest of changes to make a good story been told as a better one.
But reading about Milch’s condition before seeing the movie, the state of Al Swearengen’s health in the story was all the more sad. The sharp, conniving Al we knew from the series was a bit of a shadow of himself. His speech was as muddy as the characters state of mind. All these years wishing to see Al again, this wasn’t the state I wanted to return to see him. Or David.
To criticize my own personal feelings about where people are in their lives and what they’re going through, I feel a little ripped off. Because one of the great appeals of working with David is the chaos. And in the same respect of feeling like I don’t know why these fuckers blew this show up 12 years ago, there’s a tinge of me feeling ripped off that these fuckers didn’t get this thing going sooner. Because what I do miss, without getting too much in the weeds about why I may have not been as interested in this as perhaps others, I always thought if we’re going to do it, we should go back and give David the opportunity to do what he does best, which is multiple episodes.
Timothy olyphant, rolling stone
On the flipside of that, Timothy Olyphant’s Seth Bullock was never better. My guess is he’s grown the most during the interval between the series and the movie, both the character and the actor (his Raylan Givens in Justified was fantastic). And pissed off Bullock is the best Bullock, and we get that most of the movie. He takes a few actions in the movie he probably doesn’t in the series, showing how events in the past in Deadwood has changed him, family man now or not.
The runtime of the movie did necessitate cutting scenes and screen time that in an extended series run could have explored further narrative. Molly Parker didn’t have much to do with Alma aside from one particular noble grand gesture and FU to Hearst. Otherwise, her few scenes seemed to expose her lonely, broken heart over her feelings for Bullock. Could have used a bit more background as to why she would put herself into the position of being in Deadwood at all aside from the brief expositional patter with Charlie Utter early upon her arrival. Missed opportunity to have more of her on screen. And for Bullock and Alma to match up in a dance at the reception, only to have a little Bullock cut in and have Seth leave her alone in the middle of the dance floor… damn that was cold.
Trixie and Sol having a baby after all these years, makes me wonder how that didn’t happen sooner, or if by now time had passed them by on that score. I see how it drives the story, but seems too contrived at this point and time. Not sure how I feel about Trixie’s finding religion. Loopy Trixie was always fun and entertaining. Some people, you don’t want to see grow up, but good for her bettering her life in the end.
Joannie Stubbs, much like Jane, seemed a strong character on her own. Always thought pairing the two just to pair the two wasn’t necessary. Just my two cents on that.
Doc Cochran, Dan Dority and Johnny Burns, Wu, Merrick, Tom Nuttall, EB Farnum, all characters I could have wished more time with as well, but again, two hours is a short time. At the expense of a good EB soliloquy, at least we had the scene with him and the telephone.
And the town, where the introduction of telephone lines and brick walls showing signs of progress and moving into the future, still had that same feeling of being new and frontier fresh. Before factories and motor cars polluted the skies, a little camp turned town in the Black Hills was blooming. Somewhere I’d like to have visited, and came very close to driving there for the movie premiere followed by a concert with W Earl Brown’s band. Although Deadwood now is not the same as it was then, I still hope to make it there some day.
