“Safe passage to us all.” Deadwood: The Movie - Justice Served

“What a grand surprise after such a piece of time.” 

 

After three seasons, when HBO’s Deadwood ceased production back in 2006, it definitely left fans feeling like there was more to be said – more story left to be told.

In the 13 years since the show left us, Deadwood’s enthusiasts have only grown more fond of this uniquely profane, Shakespearean Western. We’d been hearing for some time that HBO was considering getting the band back together, of reuniting a cast that had been scattered for more than a decade. It seemed like an unlikely challenge in logistics, at best.

But sometimes pipe dreams can make themselves tangible, and creator/screenwriter David Milch has pulled off a wildly successful closing chapter for this cultish collection of characters and the barely-tamed town they call home. There’s a lot that’s amazing about Deadwood: The Movie, one of the best things being how openly it acknowledges that time has moved on, leaving its mark on both landscape and denizens alike. A decade has passed, and it’s 1889, with South Dakota having at last been granted Statehood. In a vivid opening shot, a relentless locomotive bursts out of tunnel, bearing down on the town like the inexorable approach of change – of the future. Sprouting telephone poles are now the investment crop of the day, making it that much harder for Deadwood to keep itself apart from the outside world’s encroachment. The train’s arrival marks the return of the town’s most ruthless adversary, George Hearst (Gerald McRaney) – now a California senator and a determined backer of the progress knocking on Deadwood’s door. 

 

There’s a lot more gray on view since we last saw these characters – some of whom are now downright old. Charlie Utter (Dayton Callie) stands as a distinguished reminder of a more gracious past, when he greets returning Alma Ellsworth (Molly Parker) at the train station. Lawman Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) – now a U.S. Marshal – is older, more distinguished, still an active family man. Saloon owner Al Swearengen’s (Ian McShane) health is in decline, his liver failing after long years of strain. Hearst’s return in an even more elevated position of power is the catalyst that sets things in motion.

The film makes deft use of flashbacks, but I would highly recommend revisiting the series’ finale (3.12, Tell Him Something Pretty), as an extremely helpful refresher on where things left off.

Deadwood was always a show that emphasized character over plot, and that prominence continues here, though the bittersweet story Milch has crafted serves as a more than fitting return – and sendoff – to these characters. This is a show that loves actors, and the cast seems to really be savoring the miraculous opportunity to be back working together after such an absence. In addition to Callie, McRaney and the other cast veterans, Paula Malcomson and John Hawkes are superb as Trixie and Sol Star, who are still together and about to bring a child into their lives. Malcomson’s recklessly impulsive balcony harangue of Hearst is truly something to behold. Kim Dickens, Brad Dourif, Franklyn, Ajaye  and Anna Gunn, are among the many familiar faces Deadwood welcomes back. Robin Weigert is spectacular as Calamity Jane, but the great William Sanderson is disheveled sublimity as E.B. Farnum, Deadwood’s “titular” mayor, exasperating Hearst with obsequious apologies for “wanton leakage.”

 

If events conspire to rob Deadwood of its symbolic soul, the characters aren’t going down without a fight. Olyphant’s years on Justified have served him well, and perhaps no other actor can so immediately inspire fear of imminent reprisal just by walking towards a building. “My job ain’t to follow the law, Al. My job is to interpret it, then enforce it accordingly.” Massive kudos to director Daniel Minahan (a Deadwood veteran, along with Game of Thrones), who does a magnificent job of reconjuring Deadwood the town, as well as crafting pitch perfect moments for all the cast to shine. Milch has a wonderfully focused and economical screenplay that never drags and never feels rushed. The script is equal parts elegy and suspense, including an auction that had me with me on the edge of my seat. Despite the insistent arrival of electricity, it feels like the lights of Deadwood are starting to grow dim – in the most personal of ways. When Al Swearengen finds himself defending his mental state to Doc Cochran – “Mistaking Friday for Tuesday – well, secure my burial plot.” – we can’t forget that creator Milch was himself diagnosed with Alzheimer’s just before production got underway.

 

Make no mistake – Deadwood: The Movie is a small miracle. It stands as a moving, compelling example of what can happen when a community of artists makes an opportunity to serve justice to story and characters they all hold dear. Very highly recommended.