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OUTLAWS: THE LEGEND OF O.B. TAGGART (1995)
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
Mickey Rooney isn’t an actor known for his Westerns so when I saw his name headlining this 90s TV movie, I was intrigued. And then watching the opening credits, “Written by Mickey Rooney”? My attention was peaked!
Only the second movie Rooney wrote in his long career, OUTLAWS feels like a traditional Western with inspiration from Steinbeck and Faulkner. It’s surprisingly good at times and unique in its take on the genre and at other times it’s shockingly bad. Mickey Rooney is great as Taggart, an atypical Western anti-hero in appearance but he pulls it off, giving us a grungy and cantankerous lead performance. He’s both protagonist and antagonist as Ben Johnson (just playing Ben Johnson) isn’t much of a hero here. Neither is Ernest Borgnine but it’s good to see both of them in the cast, filling out a strong ensemble that has some other unique choices like Ned Beatty as a welcoming and then vengeful rancher or little person Billy Barty as the prospector. These choices make the movie way quirkier than other Westerns of its era.
For everything I liked about OUTLAWS, there’s a list just as long of what didn’t work. The portrayal of the one touched brother feels like it came right out of an Adam Sandler movie. It’s embarrassingly bad and pulled me out of the movie every time the character appeared on screen. The “full retard” choice weakens the film’s tragic ambitions. I didn’t expect such a dark story out of Rooney but clearly he’s really trying to say something here. It’s a shame that his script, the cast, and the direction didn’t find a better way to say it.
Watched on Tubi.
