The seeming absence of Law in Deadwood still points to a Lawgiver. The preacher on the show, at Wild Bill Hickok’s funeral, summed it up this way: “I believe in God’s purpose, not knowing it. I ask Him, moving in Him, to see His will. I ask Him, moving in others, to allow them to see.”

(2004) Film Review by MAURICE BROADDUS

This page was created on October 13, 2004
This page was last updated on June 5, 2005

—Review by Maurice Broaddus
—Photos
—About this Series
—Spiritual Connections
—Blog Maurice here

CREDITS

Producers
David Milch — Creator, Executive Producer, Head Writer
Gregg Fienberg — Co-Executive Producer
Davis Guggenheim — Director, Producer
Scott Stephens — Producer
Steve Turner — Co-Producer
Jody Worth — Consulting Producer, Writer

Directors
Ed Bianchi
Michael Engler
Davis Guggenheim
Walter Hill
Dan Minahan
Steve Shill
Alan Taylor

Writers
David Milch
John Belluso
Ricky Jay
Malcom MacRury
Ted Mann
Bryan McDonald
George Putnam
Elizabeth Sarnoff
Jody Worth

Cast - in credits order
Timothy Olyphant ... Seth Bullock
Ian McShane ... Al Swearengen
Molly Parker ... Alma Garret
Jim Beaver ... Ellsworth
Brad Dourif ... Doc Cochran
John Hawkes ... Sol Star
Paula Malcomson ... Trixie
Leon Rippy ... Tom Nuttall
William Sanderson ... Eustis Baily (E.B.) Farnum
Robin Weigert ... Calamity Jane
W. Earl Brown ... Dan Dority
Dayton Callie ... Charlie Utter

Music
Reinhold Heil
Johnny Klimek
David Schwartz (original music)
David Schwartz (theme music)

Cinematographers
Lloyd Ahern II
David Boyd
James Glennon
Annie McEveety
Xavier Pérez Grobet (episodes, 7, 8, 9, 11)

Editors
Stephen Mark (pilot episode and first season)
Lauren A. Schaffer

POSTER

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SYNOPSIS

In an age of plunder and greed, the richest gold strike in American History draws a throng of restless misfits to an outlaw settlement where everything — and everyone — has a price.

Welcome to Deadwood...a hell of a place to make your fortune.

From Executive Producer David Milch ("NYPD Blue") comes DEADWOOD, a new drama series that focuses on the birth of an American frontier town and the ruthless power struggle that exists in its lawless boundaries.

The story begins two weeks after Custer's defeat at Little Big Horn, combining fictional and real-life characters and events in an epic morality tale. Located in the Black Hills Indian Cession, the "town" of Deadwood is an illegal settlement, a violent and uncivilized outpost that attracts a colorful array of characters looking to get rich — from outlaws and entrepreneurs to ex-soldiers and racketeers, Chinese laborers, prostitutes, city dudes and gunfighters.

Among the settlers are ex-lawman Seth Bullock, played by Timothy Olyphant ("Go," "Gone in 60 Seconds"), the legendary gunfighter and scout Wild Bill Hickok, played by Keith Carradine ("Nashville," "Pretty Baby") and Machiavellian saloon owner Al Swearengen, played by Ian McShane ("Sexy Beast," "War and Remembrance").

With its unflinching realism, adult themes and wickedly inventive storylines, DEADWOOD is an intense, character-driven drama that takes elements of the traditional western and turns them upside down. "I had always wanted to do a series set in some period where it was legitimate to explore the genesis of law," Milch says. "What interested me about Deadwood is that it was an outlaw settlement, on Indian territory, so the American law didn't apply — there were no laws at all."

Milch, DEADWOOD's creator and head writer in addition to its executive producer, is a onetime Yale lecturer whose TV credits include such series as "NYPD Blue" (he was co-creator) and "Hill Street Blues." Walter Hill ("48 HRS.", "The Long Riders") directed DEADWOOD's pilot episode. Gregg Fienberg ("Gods and Monsters") is co-executive producer. Director/producer Davis Guggenheim ("Alias" and "24") and Scott Stephens ("The Mind of the Married Man") serving as producer.

Review by MAURICE BROADDUS
Website: www.MauriceBroaddus.com Email: maurice@mauricebroaddus.com
Holds a Bachelor's of Science degree in Biology (with an undeclared major in English) from Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. He works as an environmental toxicologist by day and is a horror writer by night. Obviously his areas of interests includes religious studies, folklore, and myths. He is a notorious egotist who, in anticipation of a successful writing career, is practicing speaking of himself in the third person. Oh yeah, he's married to the lovely Sally Jo and has two boys: Maurice Gerald Broaddus II (thus, retroactively declaring himself "Maurice the Great") and Malcolm Xavier Broaddus.

Have you ever wondered why we seem to have so many television shows revolving around law enforcement? Look at some of our top shows: CSI (Las Vegas, Miami), Law & Order (the original, crime and punishment, criminal intent, special victims unit), The Shield, The Wire, NYPD Blue . . . the list goes on and on. One reason is the seemingly endless supply of stories that come from or can be spun from the lives and encounters of police officers. It also betrays our fascination with law and how it works.

Both reasons haunt David Milch. He went from story editor to Executive Producer of Hill Street Blues, was the co-creator of NYPD Blue, created the two short-lived series Brooklyn South and Big Apple, and now finds himself on the opposite side of the law with Deadwood. Don’t get me wrong, Deadwood continues Milch’s fascination with looking at the nature of law and law enforcement, he just does it from a new perspective. The theme that he focuses this show around is “how does society organize itself in the absence of law?”

This show is loosely based on actual events in the Sioux Indian land of Deadwood, South Dakota, during the 1870s -- just after Custer’s ill-fated stand at Little Big Horn and as gold is discovered in the Black Hills. The former camp of Deadwood becomes a boomtown. Those people who grew up on a diet of 1950s and 60s era Westerns will be shocked by this show. David Milch said that he thinks of the show as a “story as set in the West rather than a Western.” And the casual viewer will be assaulted by some harsh language. Often. We’re talking Good Will Hunting plus Menace II Society levels of profanity. Horror writer Gary Braunbeck calls profanity “violence without action,” and never is that more true than on Deadwood. David Milch spent months (some reports say well over a year) doing research for the show, including the level of foul language. Apparently people who visited the real Deadwood left stunned by the language used there.

While real-life figures such as Wild Bill Hickok (Keith Carradine) and Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert) enter the story, the real action centers around two fictional characters: the former law man trying to start his own business, Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant), and the corrupt, murderous, scene stealing, saloon owning pimp Al Swearengen (Ian McShane). Think of Al as the Kingpin (from the Daredevil movie) or Falstaff (from Shakespeare’s Henry IV) or Tony Soprano (from The Sopranos) of the Old West. Hypnotic, charismatic, and brutal, he disposes of the bodies of his victims via hungry pigs. A patron of his said it best, “I don’t trust you as far as I could throw you, but I enjoy the way you lie.” Their stories are set to a backdrop of rampant sex, alcoholism, drug use (laudanum--pure opium in alcohol--being the drug of choice for ladies), greed, and racism/fear (because of the omnipresent Indian threat).

All in a state of lawlessness.

The nature of the literal lawlessness of Deadwood came to light during the “trial” of Cock-Eyed Jack McCall after he shot Wild Bill Hickok in the back. It occurred to several prominent citizens, chief among them Al, that no one could appeal to the law in order to settle on a verdict. To do so would invite the Federal government looking at them, annexing the area as a state, which it was not at the time, and possibly seizing property. So instead, the judge ordered the jurors to deliberate according to common custom, in this case, common custom would have been to do a revenge killing.

But we don’t live in a state of lawlessness.

C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, makes an argument for a Law of Human Nature, those laws of right and wrong written onto men’s hearts. After all, ethical disputes presuppose some common standard of human decency. But as we look at the people around us, we’re disturbed by how men actually behave versus how they ought to behave. Something in us tells us that there is a standard of behavior that we ought to adhere or at least aspire to. And if there is some kind of code written into each of us, there has to be an Author of that code.

HBO continues its trend of highlighting our fascination with the brooding criminal side of humanity--The Sopranos, The Wire, Oz--perhaps forcing us to face the ugly truth about our natures. Yet, it is in the sewers of mankind’s heart, without the civilized dress that we like to put on to deceive ourselves about who and what we are, that it’s easiest to find God. The seeming absence of Law in Deadwood still points to a Lawgiver. The preacher on the show, at Wild Bill Hickok’s funeral, summed it up this way: “I believe in God’s purpose, not knowing it. I ask Him, moving in Him, to see His will. I ask Him, moving in others, to allow them to see.”

This is a moody, brilliant show, a gritty look at the Old West, that is defined by the depth of its characters.

—Blog Maurice here

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