Deadwood: The Movie

Deadwood: The Movie is the perfect ending to television’s all-time best show. ... Just as it’s to be expected, Milch balances such touchingly somber moments with instances of camaraderie, treachery, violence and absurdity.

Good men die. Bad men prosper. That’s life. What feels miraculous about "Deadwood: The Movie" is how much it captures the comfortable humanity in between those two extremes. It feels like the product of a creator who fully understands that this is his last creation, but even he refuses to end on an easy note. There can be closure without sentimentality.

What struck me most were not the tragedies of Deadwood: The Movie, but instead its indelible joys: the humanity that refuses to be stifled and shut away, even in this hardscrabble existence.

For those wondering about the show’s charms, this is a nearly impossible point to work backward from. As a series capper, it’s a satisfying, loving end that fulfills old Deadwood’s imperfect promises while mostly avoiding the pitfalls of nostalgia.

Thirteen years on, it remains as fresh and compelling as it ever was and it now has an ending worthy of its revered name.

Milch's gift for raw frontier poetry, with Shakespearean soliloquies filtered through X-rated elegiac (and oh-so-satisfying) two-hour farewell. [27 May - 9 Jun 2019, p.12]

This was mostly one for the dedicated fan, who remembered all the old songs. Some things are better left undone.

a good stroll down memory lane to see the ultimate fate of deadwood, whilst its great to see everyone again i do feel this does not do much to extend the story and instead just seems like an extra episode. And if they were going to conclude things in this manner Hursts final play is poor.

Thirteen years after its abrupt cancellation, HBO's finally put the band back together for a proper conclusion to Deadwood, its unfinished Shakespearean western. The result fits like an old pair of boots. Perhaps a bit dustier than before, withered and cracked and worn, but no less familiar. It's pleasant to occupy this world again, to see all the familiar faces rubbing elbows and butting heads, but the limits of a two-hour movie are far more pervasive than those of a twelve-episode season. Particularly so when applied to a show like this one, which has always made good use of television’s episodic format by employing lengthy exposition, carefully distributed plot points and a whole mess of exceptionally well-developed secondary characters. I wanted more time with Doc, with Dan, with Wu, but instead the supporting cast only pops in for the occasional cameo, then fades back into the woodwork in the name of a big-players-only featured narrative. And even that feels a hair on the light side, with an armload of unnecessary flashbacks and a rather easy, under-thought resolution. Al gets a big speech or two, Bullock is given the chance to grit his teeth and stare daggers, Hearst acts smug and operates in underhanded ways, and then... we're done, and it's goodbye forever. I understand why it had to be this way, and I'm grateful for the long-awaited chance at closure, but I'm also disappointed it couldn't have been three or four times longer. In a way, I'm now even hungrier for a fourth season than I was before.

I was never a fan of the series and never finished watching it but I was curious to see the film so I ended up doing it. I guess I needed to finish it to have a better understanding but I still liked it. Nothing exceptional but the quality is more than enough.

Nostalgia was satisfied, however calling this a conclusion begs the question as to what people are shovelling. There is no conclusion, just a virtual repeat of the actions of the TV series and the death of a few major characters. The end result is still the pregnant expectation of the actual conclusion. I guess this is the negotiated acceptance level of the surviving Hearst family members that had the original show shut down. Hearst razing the entire town was supposed to be in the follow-up movie, which will never happen. So we waited all this time, for more of the same.

This movie was literally the same plot as season 3! I thought there might have been at least one new character introduced to make things fresh but no. I hate the Hearst character and that he was completely just cut and pasted from last season. Very disappointing. No disrespect to David Milch as he goes through a tragic journey with dementia. I give this movie a 3/10 as he was able to still make it look and feel like Deadwood.