Watching this movie was truly a painful experience. Billy the Kid was an insignificant, unremarkable, pimply-faced, orthodontia-challenged 21-year-old thug that is remembered today because the New Mexico Department of Tourism spends hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to make sure that we do.<br /><br />I do "get" Peckinpaugh's revisionist history. Regardless, when 37-year-old Kris Kristofferson appears on screen as the 21-year-old "kid," reality takes flight. Kristofferson, already sporting a jowl and drawling in a voice that has been drowned in whiskey and fried by too many cigarettes (in real life), displays the acting range of a tree.<br /><br />James Coburn? Please . . . . Would someone please tell me what Peckinpaugh saw in this hack? Folks, Peckinpaugh died young -- about 59 -- and he got a fairly late start in the movies. His body of work is small, very small. His "Wild Bunch" is a masterpiece on any level, but please do not try to elevate his other work more than it deserves. "The Iron Cross" has its moments, despite its weird ending, but most of Peckinpaugh's cinematic work is pedestrian. Period. End of report.