The opening of the movie has Jane (Robin Weigert) riding back into town, echoing a scene from the series opener when she came to Deadwood along with Bill Hickok.
Recognizing he’s not long for the world, he offers to leave the Gem to the newlyweds. The facility with which he (and the rest of the cast, it should be said) takes up the extremely specific rhythm of Milch’s dialogue is a wonder.Īl’s counsel to Bullock is helpful, and he’s able to walk Trixie down the aisle prior to her marriage to Sol. Still, if his physical presence is diminished, Al’s way with words is as strong as ever. It’s a tremendous physical performance from McShane, who sells both Al’s deteriorating condition and his efforts to project an image of himself as still healthy when the situation calls for it. His liver is failing, and he knows that the end for him is nigh. “You don’t drink like Al does without some cost,” McShane told The Hollywood Reporter, which turns out to be a huge understatement. Hearst remains a senator and a very wealthy man, but this small victory echoes the one from the show’s final season, without an innocent woman having to pay the price for it. Hearst makes one more attempt to regain the upper hand, bringing in some out-of-town lawmen to arrest her, but Bullock (and, had it come to that, the town as a whole) rallies to her and arrests Hearst for Utter’s murder. She won’t, however, let the man swan through her town unchallenged, and unleashes a tirade at him that can only be done justice by watching.Įmbarrassed and enraged by the spectacle, Hearst sets out to reassert himself, only to be rebuffed by Utter - after which Hearst orders his murder - and then by Bullock and Alma at an auction for Utter’s property. Sol Star (John Hawkes) initially asks a very pregnant Trixie (Paula Malcomson) to stay indoors during Hearst’s time in town, as the 10-year-old secret that she was killed for shooting him has held. The last shot of Bullock mirrors the first: He walks back to Martha, says “I’m home” and embraces her. Longing looks and memories are all that pass between them. Similarly, he doesn’t act on any lingering feelings he may have for Alma Garrett (Molly Parker), who’s returned for Deadwood’s statehood celebration. But where the younger Bullock might have let a mob that attacks Hearst have its way with the man, he (eventually) pulls Hearst out of the fray. Midway through the film, after a tense confrontation with George Hearst (Gerald McRaney), Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) asks, “You ever think, Bullock, of not going straight at a thing?” Bullock’s terse reply: “No.”īullock is still prone to frontier justice, burning the lumber Hearst has brought to Utter’s land in preparation for putting up telephone poles.
He still has a violent temper - illustrated later when he beats one of Charlie Utter’s (Dayton Callie) killers half to death - but has learned better to control it, even if he’s still no diplomat. The first scene of Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) in the movie is him sitting down to breakfast with wife Martha (Anna Gunn) and their three children, and it’s telling.