![]() That only added to the fires of the anti-government ideology.” In both cases, the killings are instigated by the government. “With Billy the Kid, it’s Pat Garrett, and in the case of Jesse James it’s Robert Ford, who is going to get a reward. They were young and in both cases were never brought to justice in a court of law.”īoth were killed by a representative of the law. JAMES GANG ASSOCIATE ARCHIVEJan-Christopher Horak, the head of the archive who programmed the monthlong series, notes that “there are lots of Billy the Kid movies and Jesse James movies because going back to the 19th century they have been the two primary mythological figures in terms of outlaws. Starting Friday, the UCLA Film & Television Archive is exploring the cinematic history of these two outlaws in its “Two Western Myths: Billy the Kid & Jesse James” film series at the Billy Wilder Theater. Just as these men captured the attention of novelists, Hollywood transformed James and Billy the Kid from murderous outlaws into heroic romantic heroes who were fighting the government and authority. Unlike James, he was still a relatively unknown outlaw until the year after his death saw the publication of the highly exaggerated “The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid,” which was written by his killer, Sheriff Pat Garrett, and M.A. Bonney, who was born in 1859 and died at 21 in 1881, was a outlaw and gunman who claimed that he killed more than 20 men (in reality, historians believe he probably shot only four - but he was just starting out). Mythologized even while he was alive, his celebrity grew after his death in dime novels where he was portrayed as a sagebrush Robin Hood.īilly the Kid, a.k.a. James, who was born in 1847 and died in 1882, was an outlaw, gang leader, bank and train robber from Missouri who was the most infamous member of the James-Younger Gang. Jesse James and Billy the Kid were the rock stars of the wild, wild West. ![]()
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