Plot: What’s it about?
This is about six young men in 1878(Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney and Casey Siemeszko) that were taken under and educated by an English man, John Tunstall.(Terence Stamp) Tunstall moved to Lincoln County New Mexico to make a profit in the beef selling business. The young men called themselves the Regulators. They were taught to handle themselves with their fists, guns and they were taught to ride a horse and to read and write. The local rich bad guy in town Mr. Murphy (Jack Palance) was a wealthy man who had the government beef contract and when he heard that Tunstall was in the bidding he warned Mr. Tunstall not to bother. Tunstall was an honest man and didn’t want to back down for nobody. Tunstall was killed one day while coming back home after a New Year’s Eve party.
The Regulaters, as they called themselves, were deputized to bring in the men that killed their friend. One of those kids was the infamous Billy the Kid. (Emilio Estevez) And instead of arresting the men he killed them in cold blood. Resulting in shoot outs and forcing the other Regulators to kill in self defense. Now word got out that the boys were killing and not arresting so a bounty was put on their head and the calvary was sent out to get them as well. This seemed to bother everyone except The Kid. The regulators hid in New Mexico for a little while then returned to Nebraska to save their friend and his wife, lawyer to Tunstall, and give them an escort to Lincoln to see the governor. Well they got to the house and everyone seemd to be there waiting for them. It was a setup. The setup resulted into a great shoot out.
I have always liked this movie especially the first time I saw in the theater when I was 15. I have only seen it in bits and pieces since then on cable or on regular television. It was good to finally see it on DVD in it’s widescreen format. The picture looked great and the sound was pretty good. I liked this movie and I still get goose bumps in the final shootout of the film. It was also good to see the featurette on the DVD with interviews with the cast members of the film and hearing what they had to say about the crazy things they did behind the scenes and all. I recommend owning this one if you are a fan of the movie. You can pick it up for about $14 with a coupon over the internet.
Video: How does it look?
I was surprised at how well this movie looked. A very good job done by the folks at Live, now Artisan. The day scenes were crisp and clear and the night scenes were clear and no sign of grain. A very good transfer.
Audio: How does it sound?
Even though this is just in 2.0 surround sound it still sounds pretty good. The subwoofer doesn’t get much attention although the surrounds do come into play in the shootouts and especially at the final shootout in the ending. A pretty good audio transfer, but it would have been nice to have a remaster in 5.1 like Young Guns 2.
Supplements: What are the extras?
First you get a featurette that includes some interviews with the cast and director and producer of the movie that were taken back when the film was being made in 1988. You also get some production notes, cast and crew biographies and a theatrical trailer presented in fullframe and 2.0 sound. The trailer definately shows its age, but it is cool to see.
