Kid Blue is the kind of movie that feels like someone tried to remake Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid after an acid trip and a bar fight. It’s part Western, part satire, part midlife crisis, and part “what in tarnation did I just watch?”
This isn’t your grandpappy’s shoot-’em-up. Hell, it’s barely a Western. It’s a shaggy-dog fable wrapped in cowboy boots, existential dread, and enough sideburns to power a 1970s Chevrolet commercial.
The Premise: An Outlaw in Existential Limbo
Dennis Hopper stars as Bickford Waner — a former train robber (aka the legendary Kid Blue) who’s decided he wants to go straight. Not because he’s found Jesus or anything noble. No, he’s just tired. Of robbing. Of running. Of having a nickname that sounds like a sad rodeo clown.
So he wanders into Dime Box, Texas (yes, really) to go straight. He takes a job at a factory that makes… ceramic bathtubs. Yup. You read that right. This is a Western where the big action set piece involves bathtubs and unions. John Wayne is rolling over in his grave — or would be, if he weren’t still alive when this thing was released.
Dennis Hopper: The High Plains Drifter of Passive Aggression
Let’s talk Hopper. This was post-Easy Rider, pre-Blue Velvet Hopper. Which means: he’s weird, but not full goblin yet. His Bickford is twitchy, conflicted, and looks like a man perpetually three seconds away from either shooting someone or reading them beat poetry.
You kind of root for him, but also kind of want him to take a long bath and stop whining.
The Supporting Cast: Hippies in Cowboy Hats
Warren Oates shows up as Reese, a slightly dense but affable working stiff who becomes Bickford’s buddy. Oates is always reliable — he plays every character like a man trying to keep his pants from falling down while dodging bullets. Then there’s Janice Rule as Molly, Reese’s wife, who’s got a thing for troubled cowboys and sociopaths with nice cheekbones.
James Jesus Christus also pops in (no, not the messiah — that’s Peter Boyle playing the cult-like Preacher Bob), to complete the ensemble of spiritual decay and low-rent debauchery.
It’s like Bonanza crashed into One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but everyone’s wearing bolo ties.
Tone? What Tone?
The tone swings harder than a drunk prospector on a busted porch swing. One minute it’s quirky and dry — like someone trying to out-Tarantino Tarantino a full two decades early — the next it’s nihilistic, weirdly sad, or just… confused.
There are satirical jabs at capitalism, religion, conformity, and masculinity, but it all feels like the writers were throwing darts at a blackboard labeled “Counterculture Topics.” Occasionally, one hits.
Is it a deconstruction of the Western mythos? A character study of disillusionment? A stoner comedy with a six-shooter? All of the above? None?
Yes.
Highlights:
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Hopper’s disheveled charm. He looks like he wandered in from another movie and just decided to stay.
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The bathtub factory — easily the most bizarre setting for a Western this side of Westworld.
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Warren Oates’s confused dignity — he brings warmth to a movie that otherwise feels emotionally stoned.
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The casual nihilism — if Jean-Paul Sartre wrote a Western, it might look a bit like this.
Lowlights:
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Meandering pacing — at times, the film is so laid-back it might actually be dead.
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Tone whiplash — you’ll laugh, then sigh, then stare at the screen like it owes you money.
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Underbaked satire — it has something to say, but like a drunk at a saloon, it forgets halfway through the monologue.
Final Verdict: Weird, Wobbly, and Watchable
Kid Blue is the kind of movie you watch while lying on your couch, halfway through a bag of popcorn, wondering if this is secretly brilliant or just low-budget nonsense with good lighting. The answer is: somewhere in the middle.
It’s too odd to be forgotten entirely. Too unfocused to be revered. But if you’ve got a thing for antiheroes, offbeat dialogue, and Westerns that feel like they were written in the back of a head shop — it’s worth a ride.
Just don’t expect a showdown. Expect an awkward stare-off, followed by a monologue about bathtub socialism.
Rating:
⚖️ 5 out of 10 ceramic bathtubs full of unfulfilled cowboy dreams
