The Tall Man (1960-62)

These are brief excerpts from one of 23 films and television series ostensibly about Billy the Kid. Below the analysis of this source are links to clips from and a bit of analysis of other dramas about the outlaw/hero. Less important than any facts or legends that may be found or debunked in these sources is the suggestion that our views of Billy have evolved through the years and that these media may tell us as much or more about the eras in which they were produced than about the historical characters and times portrayed.

NBC managed to air 75 episodes of "The Tall Man" between 1960 and 1962. The series featured a number of historical characters as well as leads Barry Sullivan as Sheriff Pat Garrett and Clu Gulager as Billy the Kid. Rancher John Tunstall, New Mexico Territorial Governor Lew Wallace, and "Doc" Holliday also make appearances. Gulager's Billy, like Paul Newman's in 1958's "The Left Handed Gun", is a rebel without a cause, or like Marlon Brando in 1953's "The Wild One", who, asked what he was rebelling against, answered, "What do you got?" The series narrator insists Garrett's "only weakness [was] his love for a half wild boy," Billy, and the series telegraphs in its first episode the leads' eventual showdown - Garrett will hunt down and kill the Kid - but fails to deliver it as the series ends with Pat and Billy riding out of town together, their fates left hanging. A New York Times critic called the series "unimaginative tripe" and Gulager's Billy "a Kookie of the sagebrush", clearly a reflection of middle class parents' anxieties about the rebellious youth culture of the 1950s and early 1960s.

The quotes from the New York Times can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tall_Man_(TV_series).

Billy the Kid (1930) https://youtu.be/Y7eWFZNm3Js
Billy the Kid Returns (1938) https://youtu.be/IOvtExDR9IA
Billy the Kid Outlawed (1940) https://youtu.be/FsWPOmdLIqI
Billy the Kid (1941) https://youtu.be/lTnkLA9Zx2Q
Fugitive of the Plains (1943) https://youtu.be/fMjWq0dlTf8
The Outlaw (1943) https://youtu.be/ymkRmnTcNko
I Shot Billy the Kid (1950) https://youtu.be/uCmTcNiD_To
The Law vs. Billy the Kid (1954) https://youtu.be/XtBkQHTX0so
The Parson and the Outlaw (1957) https://youtu.be/lJAcCBw5mRM
The Left Handed Gun (1958) https://youtu.be/mkLbhMW4w0A
The Tall Man (1960-62) https://youtu.be/f06mA2pgaAw
Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966) https://youtu.be/6U3yaa06_Vo
Chisum (1970) https://youtu.be/MsknQrdF8ak
Dirty Little Billy (1972) https://youtu.be/ro7TSCFDC0E
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) https://youtu.be/6z6FUzCLW_U
Lucky Luke vs. Billy the Kid (1984) https://youtu.be/pzODnXqw4aY
Young Guns (1988) https://youtu.be/XjWdVTKDq-M
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) https://youtu.be/X2U3eTyKMYE
Gore Vidal’s Billy the Kid (1989) https://youtu.be/u1rCTmFUpmk
Young Guns II (1990) https://youtu.be/NM9gpHrSz3w
The Kid (2019) https://youtu.be/b5BiC6WtyRc
Old Henry (2021) https://youtu.be/N65lezC3LqQ
Billy the Kid (2022) https://youtu.be/V-haxdIS0Fo

Видео The Tall Man (1960-62) канала Patrick Reed