YOUNG BUMS (YOUNG GUNS)

YOUNG GUNS (1988)
dir: Christopher Cain

YOUNG BUMS
Cracked #243, March 1989
w & a: Rick Altergott

Western about the Lincoln County Regulators, “Dirty” Steve Stephens (Dermot Mulroney), “Doc” Scurlock (Keifer Sutherland), Dick Brewer (Charlie Sheen), Charlie Bowdre (Casey Siemasko), and Jose Chavez y Chavez (Lou Diamond Phillips), ranch hands under the tutelage of John Tunstall (Terence Stamp) that all join Billy “The Kid” Bonney (Emilio Estevez). Tunstall has a feud with rival rancher Lawrence Murphy (Jack Palance).

Lou Diamond Phillips' big breakthrough was as Ritchie Valens in La Bamba.

One of Murphy's hired hands, McCloskey (Geoffrey Blake), joins up with Tunstall, while Doc attempts to court Murphy's Chinese ward, Yen Sun (Alice Carter). Murphy's men kill Tunstall, leading his lawyer friend Alexander McSween (Terry O'Quinn) to arrange for the Regulators to be deputized and given warrants for the killers' arrest. Hotheaded Billy challenges Dick's authority as the group's foreman, as the Regulators attempt to take Murphy's henchmen in alive. Instead, Billy guns down several unarmed men, including McCloskey, whom he suspects of still working for Murphy. Newspapers paint the Regulators as a deadly gang headed by a larger-than-life outlaw, "Billy the Kid".With bounty hunters seeking them all over the West and unsure where to go, Chavez leads the others on a peyote trip.

One of the men on their warrants. Buckshot Roberts (Brian Kieth), tracks them down and a shootout ensues. Roberts barricades himself in an outhouse and kills Dick, and as a reaction, the rest of the Regulators shoot up the outhouse. This lead the others to go on the run, while an injured Doc goes his own way. Chavez reveals that Murphy's corruption led to the deaths of his mother and her Navajo tribe, and urges the others to abandon their need for bloodshed, but Billy takes charge as their new leader, determined to avenge Tunstall. Doc visits Yen Sun before rejoining the gang, and they kill the corrupt Sheriff William J. Brady (Danny Kamin) and his men. They meet with a furious Alex, who explains that their badges have been revoked. Though they are now wanted men, Billy insists that their actions will bring attention to Murphy's corruption. While Charlie revisits a brothel, Billy kills an arrogant bounty hunter, and the gang escapes to Mexico, where Charlie marries a local woman. Soon-to-be-sheriff Pat Garrett (Patrick Wayne) warns Billy that Murphy's men will make an attempt on Alex's life the following day.

At Alex's house in Lincoln, the gang is surrounded by Murphy's men and famed outlaw John Kinney. Realizing that they were lured into a trap, the Regulators survive an entire day's shootout. U.S. Army troops on the Houses take arrive, as does Murphy himself with Yen, who runs inside and is reunited with Doc. Murphy orders the soldiers to set fire to the house, while Alex's wife leaves unharmed and Chavez slips away. Trapped in the burning attic, the gang throws Alex's possessions out of the window, including a trunk with Billy inside, allowing him to surprise their attackers.

Young actors in the late eighties were often referred to as “the brat pack”, a reference to the previous generation of entertainers that was called “the rat pack”.