Requiem for Billy the Kid

The French fascination with the American Old West lives and breathes again in Anne Feinsilber’s idiosyncratic documentary Requiem for Billy the Kid.Feinsilber travels to Lincoln, New Mexico for an incisive investigation of the rumor that Billy (AKA William Bonney – the most notorious outlaw of the 19th Century) in fact withdrew from villainry, slipped into a quiet, anonymous domestic lifestyle and lived to a ripe old age. Onetime Lincoln County sheriff Tom Sullivan appears onscreen and discusses, at length his own arduous, fruitless efforts to have Bonney’s bones exhumed for a DNA test that will validate or permanently disprove this theory. Feinsilber then gathers a bunch of grizzled old local residents (cowboy types, all) and has them stage an onscreen reenactment of the killing of local storeowner John Tunstall, which incited the Lincoln County War. Throughout, Feinsilber draws constant parallels between Bonney’s exploits and the poetry of the 19th century Gallic avant-garde poet Arthur Rimbaud – making hers the first film in history to do so. Kris Kristofferson, who played Bonney in the Sam Peckinpah classic Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, narrates the film in-character, while Claire Diterzi contributes a new cover of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” to the soundtrack., Idiosyncratic French documentary presenting a poetic rumination on the American West and the legend of Billy the Kid, combining images of present-day New Mexico, photos from the 1880s and clips from Hollywood Westerns. Kris Kristofferson provides the voice of Billy. Directed by Anne Feinsilber.