The Twenty-One Lives of Billy the Kid

The Twenty-One Lives of Billy the Kid (2005) examines the mythology of the outlaw through re-enactments of the violent deaths of the 21 men that Billy the Kid is supposed to have killed.

Contemporary historians place the number of Billy's actual victims at four (two of whom were drunks in a saloon), but in the years since his murder, Billy the Kid has been cast as everything from rustler to demon to lover to vampire-killer; the lack of biographical information about his life has made Billy into a cipher for any given historical or cultural moment. In The Twenty-One Lives of Billy the Kid, it is the fact of death that matters most – equal parts truth and mythology, this film is ultimately an interrogation into violence and the minor characters of history; it takes a long look at the lives of the relative unknown to see if they can hold the weight of the makeshift legend that they died serving.

Experimental filmmaker Ben Russell says his hour-long movie "may very well be the only 16mm structuralist Western ever made."