Evil and more evil make ‘Deadwood’ dreadful
Like a lot of western fans, I was pretty excited to hear that HBO was doing a western. But what a disappointment “Deadwood” has turned out to be.
The best westerns celebrate courage, heroism, friendship, family, horses and history, set against the incredible beauty that is the American West. Bank robbers, murderers and horse thieves are certainly part of that landscape too. But so is the courage of the people who fought back against them, like the brave citizens of Northfield, Minn., who shot the James-Younger Gang to pieces during the famous 1876 bank robbery in that town.
“Deadwood” takes place that same year. But rather than focus on any of the more noble elements found in the West, HBO’s creative team sticks its camera down the outhouse of human nature and leaves it there, dwelling at length on people at their very worst.
Even the beauty of the country gets little if any play. Instead, the show is a relentless assault of murder, prostitution, brutality, drug addiction, robbery and cowardice told with a never-ending stream of profanity.
Hollywood’s typical bigotry is on display here as well. The Christian minister is portrayed as a wide-eyed idiot. The mother in the covered wagon speaks in an exaggerated and insulting Minnesota accent, surely intended to show again how stupid Hollywood producers think Midwest family people are.
Family people won’t be watching. No caring parent is going to let their child stare at this sewage. And there are no redeeming lessons to be learned here, unless you’re looking for new ways to be ugly to people.
Such recent and excellent pictures as “Hidalgo,” “Open Range,” “The Missing” and earlier fare like the legendary “Lonesome Dove” show that modern westerns can deal with harsh realities without resorting to pornographic language and images.
“Deadwood’s” creator says he’s only trying to be authentic. But as reviewer Carina Chocano points out, while the show uses historic characters, it’s not historically accurate. And while David Milch can give us a lot of Yale-speak to rationalize the relentless profanity of “Deadwood,” this show is no celebration of history. What Milch has given us is a celebration of evil.
In the original episode of “The Rifleman,” a greedy cattle baron burns down the ranch of Lucas McCain and his son Mark. When Mark calls for revenge, Lucas takes time to tell him the biblical story of Job, of how God gives and takes away, and that he will see them through.
Eventually justice is done in an episode written by none other than Sam Peckinpah.
That show is an example of the kinds of values westerns once taught.
It may no longer be fashionable, but no matter what Milch may believe or portray, right and wrong still exist in this world. And it’s distressing to see men like Milch hijack a beloved and noble genre and drench it in the filth and relativity that pervades so much of our present culture.
Mark Bedor is a freelance writer who has had dozens of articles about the West published in a number of national magazines.