After receiving my feedback on my last blog post, I wanted to go and research some more into the movie The Left Handed Gun and why Billy was portrayed the way he was. Where I ended wasn’t exactly there but I found a website, http://www.aboutbillythekid.com. This website doesn’t exactly talk about the movie, but a lot of the facts on it show how much Billy’s history was changed for the movie. One of the interesting facts that I found is that Billy the Kid holds the record for the most motion pictures made on an individual in film making history. Also, Billy the Kid’s original tintype photo is worth $100,000-300,000 making it one of, if not the most, valuable historical photographs of the Old West.
Last week I mentioned how the movie portrayed that Billy the Kid was illiterate. On the website, you are able to access some of the letters that Billy wrote, which proves that Billy wasn’t actually illiterate. Also in the movie, Charlie was portrayed as one of Billy’s close companions and followed Billy and helped him seek revenge after Tunstall’s death. According to an interview Billy did for The Las Vegas Gazette in 1880, Billy and Charlie were just owners of a ranch.
Also in the movie, while Billy is in jail, a reporter comes to visit him. The reporter in the movie supports Billy and brings him chocolates and articles that are saying good things about Billy. According to an interview that Billy did for Mesilla News in 1881, Billy says that the reporter was creating a prejudice against him and “trying to incite a mob to lynch me”. Billy felt like it was taking advantage of him because he was not able to defend himself.
Also in the movie, Billy’s first crime was said to be murder when he was 11 in El Paso. He supposedly stabbed somebody for mocking his mind. Billy’s first crime actually was not committed until he was about 14 or 15. His crime was stealing several pounds of butter from a rancher. Billy did not commit his first murder until he was around 16. It was an act of self defense, but he was still wanted for murder. Another big misconception in the movie was that Billy was left handed. Billy was ambidextrous, but he mainly used his right hand. People assumed that Billy was left handed because he had his revolver positioned on the left side, but the image was reversed.