The Kid 4K 2019 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

The story of teenager Rio, who becomes an unwitting witness to the bloody war between legendary Wild West outlaw Billy the Kid Kid and violent sheriff Pat Garrett.

Review 4K Movie

As if to mark the era of the return to the Western, The Kid wants to both humanize and mythologize cowboys, the conquerors of the Wild West. Alas, the era of deconstruction of such a curious genre as the Western is long gone, and The Kid is not a modern incarnation of the classic, because the concept itself is fundamentally wrong. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, two symbols of the Wild West, once again collide on the movie screen, though without any purpose: it's hard to say anything specific about "The Kid" as a story.

So the main character, named Rio, is a 14-year-old kid who escapes with his sister Sarah from angry relatives. Uncle Grant is determined to get the fugitives. Along the way, Rio and Sarah run into wanted outlaw Billy the Kid, with Sheriff Pat Garrett rushing on his heels. The brother and sister find themselves in the middle of a cowboy showdown.

The Kid's script combines all the clichés of westerns into one in the hope that viewers won't notice them. Yes, each character is incredibly familiar and represents a kind of archetype in a cowboy hat: Billy is a guilt-ridden bandit clinging to the last shred of humanity in his soul; Pat Garrett is a staunch moralist who realizes that Western law is not divided into good or evil; Billy and Garrett's entourage of bandits or lawmen seem to exist and loom in the background; and Little Rio whines and realizes the value of human life, friendship, etc.

Perhaps thematically, "The Kid" makes sense-it's sort of a Luke Skywalker dilemma, if the association is correct. Rio flails from side to side, admiring one role model to another. He's afraid of the adult world, so he's impressed by the eternal "kid" Kid, but he also lacks the authority that Garrett has in abundance. Rio learns to be strong, but the theme of growing up is not conveyed in such a strange way: the script does not score points because it prefers to focus specifically on historical (or rather, pseudo-historical) developments.

The decision to make the narrative too mundane and even somewhat banal is an odd choice for a film that tried to look into the nature of domestic violence. Plot decisions are unnecessarily simple, making some of The Kid's profound ideas simply irrational in the context of an exploration of pain and cruelty. Toward the end, the moral component is obscured and there is no play on contraposition.

Cinematically, it is also pretty average. Unfortunately, The Kid suffers from a lack of visual sophistication. If you're going to make a western in 2019, you need to explore the intricacies of one of cinema's oldest genres so you don't run into repetition. In The Kid, of course, there is no plagiarism, but everything that happens is somehow refined and gray.

As for the acting, DeHaan, who played the legendary outlaw, mistakes his manic-depressive tendencies for charisma. His Billy came off as a pretty good bandit, but too bland. Ethan Hawke is more perceptive and does a good job of conveying the weariness of the world through his character, although it was obvious how the actor is not happy and that he wants to quickly return to the zone of creative comfort. Chris Pratt, suddenly, made his mark with an amusing false beard and a negative hero.

The rough-and-tumble western is unflinchingly brutal, though it feels like much is left unsaid. Thoughtful reflections on the nature of violence and its consequences (yep, just like in Unforgiven) give way to linear developments and a procedural biopic about the last days of a Wild West legend. Of course, playing with the audience's emotions does its job: the bandit suddenly becomes a charming hero and the lawman becomes an unpleasant and ruthless one. Perhaps Vincent D'Onofrio, who, incidentally, featured in his film in a couple of scenes, did not mean anything wrong: one can judge from the career of the venerable artist that he prefers to focus on the characters rather than a pretty picture, and yet, specifically in "The Kid" his approach gave way - the characters feel too constrained within the range of the classic western.