
Bickford Waner, an apparently naive young man from Fort Worth, arrives in the tiny Texas town of Dime Box and takes on a variety of menial jobs. He's befriended by Reese Ford and his wife Molly, but before long Molly has seduced Bickford. Only with the arrival of Bickford's former girlfriend Janet Conforto is it revealed that Bickford is actually the notorious train robber Kid Blue. Humiliated by a scandal arising from his affair with his friend's wife, Bickford gives up on g... (Full plot summary below)
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Bickford Waner, an apparently naive young man from Fort Worth, arrives in the tiny Texas town of Dime Box and takes on a variety of menial jobs. He's befriended by Reese Ford and his wife Molly, but before long Molly has seduced Bickford. Only with the arrival of Bickford's former girlfriend Janet Conforto is it revealed that Bickford is actually the notorious train robber Kid Blue. Humiliated by a scandal arising from his affair with his friend's wife, Bickford gives up on going straight and plots a crime.
Leave your thoughts about Kid Blue.
| Chicago ReaderDon DrukerA gentle little fable about the mechanization of the west and its effects on a small-time outlaw. |
| Village VoiceJ. HobermanKid Blue has a meandering jug band sensibility and a premise hilariously relevant to Hopper's situation. |
| User ReviewAmanda ØBickford: ''I aint got no gun, I aint got no wife, all I've got is a bed and board, and a job. And I'm tryin' to be as good a citizen as I can.'' Sheriff: ''Well now, that's the kinda story I like to hear, tell me that every time I ask ya and I wont havta shoot ya.'' - Kid Blue is one interesting western film. We've got The Kid himself trying to fend for his own in town after leaving his outlandishly con-life as a train robber. But things are pretty difficult in town, hard work takes place, and trying to fit in - but let us just say he runs into a bit of variables... or say, some trouble with the ol townsfolk and it's just not so easy. Will The Kid fit in and live a normal life? Or will he lead back to his old ways? Well, this film is indefinitely a fun, entertaining flick. With some pretty cool characters, and decent performances. The story is quite interesting and it kept me entertained all the way through with its absurd and odd occurrences, but it's all good. Pretty funny at times as well. I basically enjoyed it, and it is all good fun. It's watchable, and it is definitely worth checking out if you have the chance! |
| User ReviewTommy HA very humble movie about an outlaw played by Dennis Hopper who gets a job and tries to play it straight, but the sheriff gives him a hard time. I really liked watching Hopper act in this one. It's simple, but sweet. One thing that stands out, he makes a friend at town but his wife turns out to be pretty crazy and causes some interesting drama. It's cute but scary at the same time because there are plenty of people who like to play mind games like that. |
| User ReviewMEC rIt's taken me a long time to warm to the western. For the longest time, I just never bothered watching westerns, figuring that they were all the same, what with cowboys and horses and bank robberies and such. I even avoided films that were deemed genuine classics, like [i]Once Upon a Time in the West[/i] and [i]Rio Bravo[/i]. I can't really even remember why, and the idea of dismissing an entire genre, especially one that so obviously inspired one of my favorite genres (the post-apocalypse film), seems kinda sad to me now. [i]Kid Blue[/i] is has some of the typical traits of the early-'70s western. It's a studio film, directed by future [i]Muppet Movie[/i] helmer James Frawley, but it's all about an outlaw (Dennis Hopper) who, after attempting to turn straight, gives up and goes back to his thieving ways. The fact that his story is presented heroicly is clearly inspired by the success of [i]Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid[/i] and [i]Bonnie and Clyde[/i], two films that made the bad guys the ones to root for. The beginning of the film has Bick, known to wanted posters as "Kid Blue," reaching a turning point after a botched train robbery. He decides to call the life-on-the-run quits and settles in the town of Dimebox, a small town kept alive by a factory that makes ashtrays. His job sweeping up hair and emptying spitoons for barber M. Emmet Walsh doesn't work out, nor does his job lopping the heads off of chickens, but he manages to get work at the factory, thanks to his friendship with local man Reese (Warren Oates). His relationship with Reese is, it had to be said, a little weird. Reese instantly takes a liking to him, and invites him to into his life and the life of his wife Molly (Lee Purcell). Reese keeps talking about how the Greeks did things, and at one point he and Bick even take a bath together. Meanwhile, Molly has designs on Bick, and when she finds out about his outlaw past, they make things even hotter. Bick also gets involved with a trio of Indians that have recently discovered God, thanks to the words of crackpot Preacher Bob (Peter Boyle) who spends his spare time working on an "Aerial-Cycle" when not getting into ruckuses about the proper place to perform baptisms. The sheriff (Ben Johnson) wanders around a lot, looks mean and calls everyone else "boy," but generally doesn't do much but threaten. It's likeable stuff, and in more subversive hands this could have been a great film, but Frawley keeps the heat on medium, content to let us simply watch these pleasant-enough characters interact without serving up much in the way of conflict. It's got it's share of funny moments, like the older Indian explaining why you shouldn't eat cow shit, but [i]Kid Blue[/i] is really more light than comedic, and while it's always watchable, it's never anything more than that. Still, the cast is great and Hopper makes a fine lead, even if his character is more quiet and pitiable than anything else, and there are some interesting industrial-revolution-in-the-old-west themes. It's a decent, but ultimately forgettable little western, which may explain why it's never been released to video. Worth a look if you happen to stumble across it on late-night TV, though. |
| User ReviewTrent RGreat cast in this counterculture western, featuring some genuinely great character work by Oates, Ben Johnson bastarding it up as a sheriff provocateur, and Peter Boyle as a pill-poppin' inventor evangelist. The anti-modern, rebel subtext is none too subtle - but fairly well executed, pacey fun. |
| User ReviewEric RKid Blue est une serie B sous estimee ou Dennis Hopper s'apercoit qu'etre un brigand est passe de mode dans ce western revisionniste, un poil sarcastique et tendre. |