The Left Handed Gun
| The Left Handed Gun | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Arthur Penn |
| Produced by | Fred Coe |
| Screenplay by | Leslie Stevens |
| Based on | Teleplay by Gore Vidal |
| Starring |
Paul Newman Lita Milan John Dehner |
| Music by | Alexander Courage |
| Cinematography | J. Peverell Marley |
| Edited by | Folmar Blangsted |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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102 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Left Handed Gun is a 1958 American western film and the film directorial debut of Arthur Penn, starring Paul Newman as Billy the Kid and John Dehner as Pat Garrett.
The screenplay was written by Leslie Stevens from a teleplay by Gore Vidal, which he wrote for the television series The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse 1955 episode "The Death of Billy the Kid", in which Newman also played the title character. Vidal revisited and revised the material in 1989 with a TV-movie entitled Billy the Kid. The title refers to the belief that Billy the Kid was left handed, and he shoots left handed in the film, though it is possible that this was a false conclusion drawn from a reversed photograph. The film attempts to portray Billy the Kid as a misunderstood youth who got mixed up in a cattle war and was dragged down by the hostile population of New Mexico.
Drifter William Bonney (Paul Newman), known as "Billy the Kid", befriends a cattle boss named John Tunstall, who is known as "The Englishman". Tunstall is murdered by corrupt rival cattlemen led by the local sheriff in the Lincoln County War. Bonney plans to avenge the crime by hunting down those responsible and killing them in provoked gunfights. His violent actions endanger his surviving friends and the territorial amnesty proclaimed by New Mexico Territory governor Lew Wallace. Billy's former friend, Pat Garrett, becomes a sheriff and sets out to hunt him down.
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