More than a decade after the oft-lamented, premature conclusion of the HBO series, Shakespearean language returns to South Dakota in “Deadwood: The Movie.” The TV show, which ran from 2004-2006, may not have captured enough fans, but by god they were devoted. To satiate their demand for old times, HBO greenlit a standalone film, set 10 years after the events of the earlier seasons.
Those cast members that are still sucking breath reappear - more wrinkled, laced with grey - and revel again in writer David Milch’s ornate diction and vocabulary. You might find yourself looking up the word “bailiwick” after it’s used in casual conversation.
Timothy Olyphant is as forceful as ever playing marshal Seth Bullock but Ian McShane’s saloon owner Al Swearengen is somewhat diminished (thanks to liver failure, a very believable ailment). Insults and bullets fly freely during an unwanted visit by the loathed Senator Hearst (Gerald McRaney). Al asks his old friend, “You ever think, Bullock, of not going straight at a thing?” He does not.
The film has a compressed feel compared to the louche expansiveness of the series, but that’s bound to happen when you attempt to tie up a season’s worth of loose ends in under two hours.
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