In this version of the legend of Billy the Kid, the young William H Bonney joins a wealthy rancher’s gang of young guns.
When the rancher (Terence Stamp) is murdered by a ruthless landowner (Jack Palance), the gang swear revenge, but their vigilante actions put them on the wrong side of the law – and make Bonney the most wanted man in the West.
Emilio Estevez plays Billy the Kid and is joined by a good proportion of the 1980s Brat Pack in this attempt to breathe new life into the western.
The movie’s casual violence, breakneck pace and relentless hard-rock score offended purists, though, at 26, Estevez was closer in age to the real Billy (who died aged 22) than most previous actors.
A 1990 sequel – imaginatively titled Young Guns II – once again starred Estevez, Sutherland and Diamond Phillips who were joined by Christian Slater, Balthazar Getty and Alan Ruck as the other young gunfighters on the run in Mexico.
William “Billy the Kid” Bonney
Emilio Estevez
Josiah “Doc” Scurlock
Kiefer Sutherland
Chavez
Lou Diamond Phillips
Dick Brewer
Charlie Sheen
“Dirty Steve” Stephens
Dermot Mulroney
Charley Bowdre
Casey Siemaszko
John Henry Tunstall
Terence Stamp
Lawrence G Murphy
Jack Palance
Alex McSween
Terry O’Quinn
Susan McSween
Sharon Thomas
Buckshot Roberts
Brian Keith
Pat Garrett
Patrick Wayne
Director
Christopher Cain
