Requiem for Billy the Kid (2006)

Description

Anne Feinsilber's evocative documentary Requiem For Billy The Kid combines gorgeous 35mm Scope images of present-day New Mexico, black-and-white photographs from the 1880s, and clips from Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid (1973) to help recreate the famous outlaw's life and investigate the murky circumstances of his untimely demise. History has it that Sheriff Pat Garrett, a reformed villain, gunned down William Bonney, also known as Billy the Kid, on July 14, 1881 at Fort Sumner, where his grave is a much-visited tourist attraction. Some say, however, that the friendship between Garrett and Bonney led the lawman to let the outlaw go and another man's body lies beneath the famous headstone. Director Anne Feinsilber sets out to discover the truth: Did the Kid live to a ripe old age? Requiem For Billy The Kid takes a fresh look at the ever-captivating American myth of the outlaw, and at the same time, probes the western genre and the unique spirit of those who still live that life today.