Bronco Billy

BRONCO BILLY was Clint Eastwood's seventh directorial assignment and it is a wonderful movie. Why this humane comedy failed at the box office is a mystery. Billy (Eastwood) is the owner of a Wild West show peopled with losers he has picked up in his travels. Eastwood is perfection as the New Jersey shoe clerk who, like Miniver Cheevey, dreamed a nostalgic dream and took action to realize it. The actor-director could have gone over the top by satirizing the very character he played so well in spaghetti westerns; instead he gives a sincere, realistic performance that silenced detractors who thought he could only play violent loners. In fact, all the actors (save the ...