Director Anne Feinsilber offers an impressionistic look at the life, legend and lasting influence of a legendary outlaw in this documentary. Born William Henry McCarty and later known as William H. Bonney, Billy the Kid was a petty thief who later joined up with a gang of outlaws and horse thieves, and developed a reputation as a bloodthirsty gunman (which history suggests wasn't truly deserved) when he was shot and killed in 1881 by Pat Garrett, a New Mexico sheriff who knew Billy from his earlier career as a bartender. Billy the Kid's life quickly became the stuff of legend, and filmmaker Feinsilber travels to New Mexico in search of the elusive truth about the outlaw, as well as learning what he means to others. While comparing Billy to such existential poets as Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, the film also looks into the facts of his life as researched Tom Sullivan, a lawman and western history buff in New Mexico. The film also features interviews with Kris Kristofferson and Rudy Wurlitzer, respectively the star and screenwriter of Sam Peckinpah's film PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID as they discuss Billy the Kid as a cultural metaphor and counterculture icon. Requiem for Billy the Kid received its world premiere at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

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Requiem For Billy The Kid is a rather dreamy and strangely haunting documentary concerned with investigating the myth that Henry McCarty AKA William Bonney AKA Billy the Kid was never gunned down by Pat Garrett; but actually lived out the rest of his days in peace and to a ripe old age.

Requiem’s narrative unfurls like fragments of a waking dream, with Kris Kristofferson speaking as Billy from beyond the grave and doing his best gruff ‘ole boy voice-over, imbued with calm sincerity and tender reflection. Director and co-writer Anne Feinsilber also narrates, and at times she and Kristofferson even interact as though she had resurrected Billy the Kid for one last interview. These moments are strangely touching as they each appear so unguarded, familiar and earnest.

A treatise on the American Old West, Requiem drips with a kind of nostalgic pathos, richly enhanced by the breathtakingly beautiful photography courtesy of Patrick Ghiringhelli, capturing the grandeur and intimacy of New Mexico with its vast plains, canyons, rugged vistas and sparse, never-ending scope - it’s all enough to make Sergio Leone blush.

Excerpt from James Gracey at Eye For Film located HERE