About The Brief, Violent Life of Billy The Kid
The orphan teen who became the most wanted man in the West. A fascinating look at the boy behind the myth, BILLY THE KID puts a human face on the legend who in just a few short years transformed himself from a skinny orphan boy to the most feared man in the West to an enduring icon. On April 28, 1881, twenty-one-year-old Henry McCarty, a.k.a. Billy the Kid, just days from being hanged for murder, outfoxed his jailers and electrified the nation with the latest in a long line of miraculous escapes. An outlaw with a deadly reputation, the young man was finally gunned down by the ambitious sheriff Pat Garrett just a few weeks later. The felling of one of the most notorious criminals of the age made front-page news and marked the end of Henry — but it was the beginning of one of the West’s most enduring legends. Demonized by the lawman that killed him, the Kid was soon mythologized by a never-ending stream of dime store novels and big-screen dramas, portrayed by everyone from Paul Newman
The Brief, Violent Life of Billy The Kid is presented by American Experience | PBS. Its listed runtime is 54 minutes. The source link and publisher attribution are provided with the embedded film.
As a biography documentary, The Brief, Violent Life of Billy The Kid uses brief, violent, billy as its central frame. Biographical films select events to build an interpretation of a life. Consider which voices are included, how private experience is connected to public achievement, and what may be missing from a compressed narrative.
What to consider before watching
- What evidence, testimony or observation does the film use to explain brief, violent, billy?
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Topics covered in this documentary
Documentary details and original source
- Title
- The Brief, Violent Life of Billy The Kid
- Category
- Biography
- Runtime
- 54 minutes
- Language
- English
- Publisher
- American Experience | PBS
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