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The Left Handed Gun

The Left Handed Gun is a 1958 American Western film directed by Arthur Penn, in his feature directorial debut, about outlaw Billy the Kid. It stars Paul Newman as Billy and John Dehner as Pat Garrett, along with Lita Milan and Hurd Hatfield. The film attempts to portray Billy the Kid as a misunderstood youth who got mixed up in a cattle war and was dragged down by the hostile population of New Mexico.

Plot
Drifter William Bonney, known as "Billy The Kid", befriends a cattle boss named John Tunstall, who is known as "The Englishman". Tunstall is murdered by corrupt rival cattlemen led by the local sheriff in the Lincoln County War. Bonney plans to avenge the crime by hunting down those responsible and killing them in provoked gunfights. His violent actions endanger his surviving friends and the territorial amnesty proclaimed by New Mexico Territory governor Lew Wallace. Billy's former friend, Pat Garrett, becomes a sheriff and sets out to hunt him down. Billy's worshipful companion, Moultrie, lionizes Billy's actions, fueling a series of dime novels that transform Bonney into a legend. Billy is disgusted with his fictionalization, and he rejects Moultrie. Embittered, Moultrie betrays Bonney to Garrett. In a final showdown, Garrett ambushes and kills the exhausted Bonney, who faces his nemesis unarmed in the hopes of ending his own life. ==Cast==
Cast
Credits from the AFI Catalog of Feature Films. ==Reception==
Reception
The film was a flop in the United States, but was praised by French film critics for its bold experimentation with the stereotyped American Western genre. Arthur Penn's direction received some praise, with Variety noting "shows himself in command of the medium, using motion picture technique and advantages...not available elsewhere, to their fullest value." ==Comic book adaptation==
Comic book adaptation
Dell Four Color #913 (July 1958) ==See also==
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