Four years after the end of the American Civil War in 1869, U.S. ArmyCaptain James T. "Jim" West and U.S. Marshal Artemus Gordon cross paths with each other in their hunt for ex-ConfederateGeneral "Bloodbath" McGrath, seemingly responsible for a massacre in New Liberty where West's parents were killed. U.S. PresidentUlysses S. Grant informs them about the disappearances of America's key scientists and a treasonous plot by McGrath, giving them the task of finding the scientists.
Aboard their train The Wanderer, West and Gordon examine the severed head of scientist Thaddeus Morton, finding a clue that leads them to Dr. Arliss Loveless, a legless ex-Confederate officer and engineering genius. Infiltrating Loveless' plantation during a party, the duo rescues a woman named Rita Escobar, who asks for their help in rescuing her father Guillermo Escobar, who is one of the kidnapped scientists.
Loveless holds a demonstration of his newest weapon, a steam-powered prototype tank, and uses McGrath's soldiers for target practice. Accusing McGrath of "betrayal" for surrendering at Appomattox Court House, Loveless shoots and leaves him for dead. Gordon, West, and Rita find McGrath, who reveals Loveless framed him for the massacre before dying. Upon catching up with Loveless on The Wanderer, a panicked Rita accidentally releases sleeping gas during a brief fight, knocking out West, Gordon, and herself.
West and Gordon wake up as Loveless pulls away in The Wanderer, taking Rita hostage. Announcing his intention to capture Grant at the golden spike ceremony, he leaves the duo in a deadly trap in a cornfield. After narrowly escaping, West and Gordon stumble across Loveless' private railroad, leading to his secret industrial complex at Spider Canyon. There, they witness Loveless' ultimate weapon, a giant mechanical spider armed with nitroglycerin cannons that he uses to capture Grant and Gordon at the ceremony, while West gets shot and left for dead by one of Loveless' henchwomen upon being caught sneaking in the spider.
At his complex, Loveless announces his plan to dissolve the United States, dividing the territory among Great Britain, France, Spain, Mexico, the Native American people and Loveless himself. When Grant refuses to surrender, Loveless orders Gordon to be executed, but West, having survived, disguises himself as a belly dancer and distracts Loveless, allowing Gordon to free the captives.
Loveless escapes on his spider, taking Grant with him. As Loveless once again demands that Grant surrender, he refuses and Loveless responds by destroying a small town. Using a flying machine, Gordon and West catch up to the spider, where West battles Loveless' henchmen before confronting Loveless himself, now on mechanical legs. After freeing Grant, Gordon shoots one of Loveless' legs, allowing West to gain the upper hand. As the mechanical spider approaches a cliff, Loveless shoots at West with the concealed gun he used to kill McGrath, but instead hits the spider's machinery, halting it abruptly at the canyon's edge. Both West and Loveless fall from the spider, but West survives by catching a chain dangling from the machinery.
Grant promotes Gordon and West as the first agents of his new United States Secret Service. As Grant departs on The Wanderer, West and Gordon reunite with Rita and attempt to court her, only for Rita to reveal that Professor Escobar is actually her husband. Gordon and West ride into the sunset on the spider.
Discussions with Will Smith and Barry Sonnenfeld began in February 1997 after the two had wrapped up production on Men in Black for Columbia Pictures the same year.[6] Smith declined to do the lead role in The Matrix in order to star in Wild Wild West.[7] Warner Bros. pursued George Clooney to co-star with Smith as Artemus Gordon, with Kevin Kline, Matthew McConaughey and Johnny Depp also in contention for the role while screenwriters S. S. Wilson and Brent Maddock (best known for writing the Short Circuit and Tremors films) were hired by the studio to script the film between April and May 1997.[8] Clooney signed on the following August after dropping out of Jack Frost, while the Wilson-Maddock script was rewritten by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman (best known for writing the films Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Doc Hollywood).[9] However in December 1997, Clooney was replaced by Kline after an agreement with Sonnenfeld: "Ultimately, we all decided that rather than damage this project trying to retrofit the role for me, it was better to step aside and let them get someone else."[10]
Writing
The film featured several significant changes from the television series. For instance, Dr. Loveless, as portrayed by Kenneth Branagh in the film, went from a dwarf to a man without legs who uses a steam-powered wheelchair (similar to that employed by the villain in the episode "The Night of the Brain"); his first name was also changed from Miguelito to Arliss and was given the motive of a Southerner who sought the defeat of the North after the Civil War. Kevin Kline plays Artemus Gordon in the film, whose character is similar to the show's version of him portrayed by Ross Martin, except that he is much more egotistical than Jim West. The film depicted Kline's Gordon creating more ridiculous, humorous, and implausible inventions than those created by Martin's Gordon in the original series, as well as having an aggressive rivalry with West, unlike in the television series where he and West had a very close friendship and trusted each other with their lives. While Gordon did indeed impersonate Grant in three episodes of the series ("The Night of the Steel Assassin", "The Night of the Colonel's Ghost" and "The Night of the Big Blackmail"), they were not played by the same actor. Additionally, West was originally portrayed by Robert Conrad, a Caucasian rather than an African American, which serves a critical plot point as West's parents were among the victims of Loveless's massacre at New Liberty.
Jon Peters produced the film alongside director Sonnenfeld. In a 2002 Q&A event that appears on An Evening with Kevin Smith, filmmaker Kevin Smith talked about working as a screenwriter for Peters on a fifth potential Superman film in 1997. He revealed that Peters demanded, among other things, that Superman fight a giant spider in the third act.[11] After Batman director Tim Burton came onboard, Smith's script was scrapped and the film was never produced due to further complications. A year later, he noted that Wild Wild West, with Peters on board as producer, was released with the inclusion of a giant mechanical spider in the final act.[12]Neil Gaiman also revealed that Peters insisted that a giant mechanical spider be included in a proposed film adaptation of The Sandman.[13]
Filming
Principal photography was set to begin in January 1998, but was pushed three months later to April 22, 1998.[14] The interior sequences on the trains of both Artemus Gordon and Dr. Loveless were shot on sets at Warner Bros. Burbank Studios, 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, while the exterior sequences were shot in Idaho on the Camas Prairie Railroad. The Wanderer in the film is portrayed by the Baltimore & Ohio 4–4–0 No. 25, one of the oldest operating steam locomotives in the U.S. Built in 1856 at the Mason Machine Works in Taunton, Massachusetts, it was later renamed The William Mason in honor of its manufacturer.[15] During preproduction, the engine was sent to the steam shops at the Strasburg Rail Road for restoration and repainting.[15] The locomotive is brought out for the B&O Train Museum in Baltimore's "Steam Days". The William Mason and the Inyo (which was the locomotive used in the original television series) both appeared in the 1956 Disney film The Great Locomotive Chase.
Much of the Wild West footage was shot around Santa Fe, New Mexico, particularly at the western town film set at the Cook Movie Ranch (now Cerro Pelon Ranch). During the shooting of a sequence involving stunts and pyrotechnics, a planned building fire grew out of control and quickly overwhelmed the local fire crews that were standing by. Much of the town was destroyed before the fire was contained.[16]
Music
The orchestral film score, including its main theme, was composed and conducted by Elmer Bernstein, a veteran of many Western film scores such as The Magnificent Seven. The score mainly follows the Western genre's symphonic tradition, while at times also acknowledging the film's anachronistic playfulness by employing a more contemporary music style with notable rock percussion and electronic organ. The score also briefly incorporates Richard Markowitz's theme from the original television series in one cue (uncredited in the film and not included on the album); ironically, this was one of the film's few elements that were faithful to the series, which also did not credit Markowitz for the theme. Additional parts of the score were composed by Bernstein's son Peter, while his daughter Emilie served as one of the orchestrators and producers.
"Coincidence" (Theme by Elmer Bernstein, Music Composed by Peter Bernstein)
0:51
30.
"Captured"
1:05
31.
"The Plan/America"
2:25
32.
"She Dances"
2:18
33.
"Eight Ball" (Theme by Elmer Bernstein, Music Composed by Peter Bernstein)
1:14
34.
"Avante/Air Gordon" (Theme by Elmer Bernstein, Music Composed by Peter Bernstein)
1:19
35.
"Flying Attack" (Theme by Elmer Bernstein, Music Composed by Peter Bernstein)
1:59
36.
"Knife Guy" (Theme by Elmer Bernstein, Music Composed by Peter Bernstein)
2:30
37.
"Tin Man/Four of a Kind"
2:41
38.
"Last Fight" (Composed by Peter Bernstein)
2:43
39.
"Bye Loveless / Whoopin’" (Theme by Elmer Bernstein, Music Composed by Peter Bernstein)
1:27
40.
"The End (Ride The Spider)"
2:12
41.
"Main Title (alternate version)"
2:09
42.
"1M3 Take 119 (not used in the film)"
2:06
43.
"Whirly Girly Stop (not used in the film)"
0:30
44.
"4M3 R Take 165 (not used in the film)"
1:04
45.
"Flying Attack (alternate version)" (Theme by Elmer Bernstein, Music Composed by Peter Bernstein)
1:51
46.
"The End (Ride The Spider) (alternate version)"
2:12
47.
"Blood on the Saddle / Arise (instrumental)"
1:38
48.
"Camptown Races/Oh Susanna" (Composed by Stephen Foster)
2:21
Total length:
75:09
Release
Upon release on June 30, 1999, alongside Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros.' R-rated film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, several news reports arose stating that adolescent moviegoers purchased tickets into seeing the PG-13-rated Wild Wild West in theaters, but instead went to see the South Park film.[18] This was a result of a film industry crackdown that made sneaking into R-rated films tougher for children, as proposed by U.S. President Bill Clinton at the time in response to the moral panic generated by the Columbine High School massacre, which had occurred two months before the release of both films.[19]
Marketing
Warner Bros. heavily promoted Wild Wild West as an anticipated summer blockbuster instead of Brad Bird's animated film The Iron Giant, which was released two months after Wild Wild West. This sparked controversy as The Iron Giant was becoming more critically successful than the critically-panned Wild Wild West upon release, despite eventually underperforming at the box office due to the studio deciding to spend their money on marketing for Wild Wild West among other films.[20][21]
Wild Wild West grossed $27,687,484 during its opening weekend, with a total of $40,957,789 for the Independence Day weekend and ranking first at the North American box office.[24] It dropped into second place below American Pie in its second weekend, making $16.8 million.[25] The film ended its theatrical run on October 10, 1999 after five months, having grossed $113,804,681 domestically and $108,300,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $222,104,681 against a production budget of $170 million, making it commercially unsuccessful.[2]
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 16% based on reviews from 131 critics, with an average rating of 4.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Bombastic, manic, and largely laugh-free, Wild Wild West is a bizarre misfire in which greater care was lavished upon the special effects than on the script."[26] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 40 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally mixed-to-negative reviews".[27] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.[28]
Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times gave the film one star out of four, writing that "Wild Wild West is a comedy dead zone. You stare in disbelief as scenes flop and die. The movie is all concept and no content; the elaborate special effects are like watching money burn on the screen."[29]Janet Maslin of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, saying that the film "leaves reality so far behind that its storytelling would be arbitrary even by comic-book standards, and its characters share no common ground or emotional connection."[30]
Original series star Robert Conrad was critical of the film adaptation. While he had no problem with changing Jim West to be African-American, he felt that Will Smith was wrong for the part and would have preferred someone with "a Wesley Snipes body with a Denzel Washington head". He also would have preferred either Kevin Spacey or Gary Sinise for Artemus Gordon, and despised changing Dr. Loveless from a dwarf to an amputee.[31]
Accolades
Robert Conrad, who played Jim West in the original television series, arrived at the 20th Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony to collect in-person the five Razzies the film won in order to express his objections to the film.
Wild Wild West later ranked in the listed bottom 20 of the Stinkers' "100 Years, 100 Stinkers" list (which noted the 100 worst films of the 20th century) at #2, but lost to Battlefield Earth.[33][34]
In 1997, writer Gilbert Ralston sued Warner Bros. over the upcoming feature film based on the series. Ralston helped create the original television series The Wild Wild West and scripted the pilot episode "The Night of the Inferno". In a deposition, Ralston explained that in 1964, he had been approached by producer Michael Garrison, who "said he had an idea for a series, good commercial idea, and wanted to know if I could glue the idea of a Western hero and a James Bond type together in the same show".[35] Ralston said he then created the Civil War characters, the format, the story outline and nine drafts of the script that were the basis for the television series. It was his idea, for example, to have a secret agent named Jim West who would perform secret missions for a bumbling President Grant.
Ralston's experience brought to light a common Hollywood practice of the 1950s and 1960s when television writers who helped create popular series allowed producers or studios to take credit for a show, thus cheating the writers out of millions of dollars in royalties. However, Ralston died in 1999 before his suit was settled, resulting in Warner Bros. paying his family between $600,000 and $1.5 million.[36]
^Andrew Hindes; Dan Cox (April 9, 1998). "Hayek tames 'Wild West'". Variety. Archived from the original on April 3, 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2015.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Steve Baker, Ricky Blitt, Will Carlough, Tobias Carlson, Jacob Fleisher, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham, James Gunn, Claes Kjellstrom, Jack Kukoda, Bob Odenkirk, Bill O'Malley, Matthew Alec Portenoy, Greg Pritikin, Rocky Russo, Olle Sarri, Elizabeth Wright Shapiro, Jeremy Sosenko, Jonathan van Tulleken, and Jonas Wittenmark – Movie 43 (2013)
