Believe it or not, historian Paul Hutton called Young Guns the most historically accurate of all Billy the Kid films. I mean, John Tunstall is depicted as an older  man while he was only 24 when he was murdered and younger than the Regulators. But still, despite combining some people, it’s close, or so they say.

Directed by Christopher Cain (The Principal and Dean Cain’s dad) and written by John Fusco (Crossroads), this film number one at the US box office and eventually grossed $56 million against an $11 million budget. It and it’s sequel were big deals — I mean, Bon Jovi did the theme song “Blaze of Glory” — but somehow, I never saw either.

Lincoln County, New Mexico. Cattleman John Tunstall (Terence Stamp) is trying to civilize the young wayward men in his employ who he calls the Regulators. They are Josiah Gordon “Doc” Scurlock (Kiefer Sutherland), Jose Chavez y Chavez (Lou Diamond Phillips), Richard “Dick” Brewer (Charlie Sheen), Dirty” Steve Stephens (Dermot Mulroney), Charlie Bowdre (Casey Siemaszko) and William H. “Billy the Kid” Bonney (Emilio Estevez). He’s in a land war with another rancher, Lawrence Murphy (Jack Palance) and makes the mistakes of hiring one of his men, J. McCloskey (Geoffrey Blake), who sets up a trap to kill him. Lawyer Terry O’Quinn (Alexander McSween) deputizes them, except that Billy is too brutal and hot headed, leading them all to be called outlaws for killing plenty of Murphy’s hired guns.

He sends Buckshot Roberts (Brian Keith) after them and he succeeds in killing Doc and splintering the group, as Jose warns them all not to become lost in revenge, which is exactly what Billy goes on to do. It all leads to a huge battle where nearly everyone dies except Chavez, who makes it to California, Doc who marries Murphy’s mistress Yen Sun (Alice Carter), Alex’s widow Susan McSween (Susan Thomas) becomes a famous cattlewoman, Murphy gets arrested and Billy rides away, only to eventually be killed by Pat Garrett (Patrick Wayne, yes, John’s son) years later and buried next to Charlie.

You can see Tom Cruise get shot by Siemaszko at one point as well as Randy Travis shooting a Gatling gun. One of the guys who gets knifed is Jack Palance’s son Cody.

Somehow, Siemaszko never knew that Warren G and Nate Dogg sampled his dialogue for “Regulate.” “Regulators, We regulate any stealin’ of his property. We’re damn good too. But you can’t be any geek off the street. You gotta be handy with the steel, if you know what I mean. Earn your keep. Regulators, mount up.”

The Lionsgate UHD of Wild Guns has audio commentary with Dermot Mulroney, Lou Diamond Phillips and Casey Siemaszko, a making of, a feature on Billy the Kid and trailers. You can get it from Diabolik DVD.