Deadwood
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Deadwoodopens with a lawman thwarting the lynching of a prisoner by killing the man himself.
Clell suggests they travel together and, upon arriving, pretend not to know each other.
But the truth is even more unpleasant.
Executions are the province of the judiciary.
Seth is a sheriff, not a judge.
The tin star changes everything.
Thats what the scene is about.
And that, among other things, is whatDeadwoodis about.
It is about the end of the frontier and the beginning of civilization.
Its about what we gave up versus what we got in return.
There arent too many images of wide-open spaces in this pilot.
The vegetation is mostly scrub, and the trees are nothing to write poems about.
The characters are urbanites even though they might not think of themselves as such.
A hell of a place to make your fortune, promised billboards and print ads for the show.
Prerelease promotion madeDeadwoodlook likeThe Sopranosin cowboy hats, a neo-noir centered on brothels, gambling, and criminal conspiracies.
Al is a loquacious pimp and power broker with a Vandyke he strokes while pondering his next move.
McShanes alternately droll and terrifying performance evokes such Dickensian baddies as Fagin fromOliver Twistand Shakespeares Richard III.
and calling Al a conniving, heavy-thumbed motherfucker as if it were an endearment.
Either way, all roads lead to the safe in Als office.
Sol and Seth pay Al each day to rent their plot of land near the Gem.
Al wasnt behind the massacre, but he could have been.
The killers were associates who acted without Als blessing.
The whites in Milchs screenplay are sore winners.
We overhear editor A.W.
By 1881, most of the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne would be limited to reservations.
And yet the godless Natives slurred by Al and others are still treated as an active, insistent threat.
Ill guarantee your scalp, says Bill in a tone that certifies Masons full-of-shitness.
Bill seems to sense all this even though he cant articulate it.
A mantle is being passed.
Legends have nicknames, and since Seth doesnt have one yet, Bill assigns him one.
Its like being knighted but without all the fuss.
What if hes here to clean the place up?
He has done sheriff work after all.
His invective blends projection and wishful thinking.
When Brom mentions Bills presence in town, Al says, Does that give you the vapors?
The joke of it all is Bill hasnt given any indication of wanting to be Deadwoods sheriff.
Als fixation on the possibility confirms what hes most scared of.
He lays out all of the episodes action, nonviolent and violent, in clean, exact images.
Shooting with multiple cameras on 35-mm.
What does that final close-up of Al mean?
Though undefined by dialogue, it radiates anxiety, perhaps about the future.
Will law and order take what he has built?
Will things change in Deadwood or stay the same?
Or will they appear to stay the same while changing?
