Directed by Daniel Minahan the TV film is a solid continuation, even if condensed, shoehorned into an hour and fifty minute run time. Deadwood's creator and awarding winning writer David Milch gives some much needed closure to a series which was cut short.
The cast including the likes of Timothy Olyphant, Ian McShane, Molly Parker, the excellent Dayton Callie (as Charlie Utter), Kim Dickens, Brad Dourif and Paula Malcomson to name a few are on form with excellent performances all round.
As the residents of a now mature Deadwood, complete with railway station gather, the cast past and present do great work on the backdrop of some immersive sets and Reinhold Heil and
Johnny Klimek's music. Sadly without a few of the cast members who have since passed away in real life (notably Powers Boothe) during the hiatus.
Dan Dority (W. Earl Brown) is slightly under utilised, but given there so much to include in the short running time this is understandable. There's big hit emotional story beats and after many years, the characters have fittingly slightly altered, notably McShane's Al Swearengen, now far softer (echoing Al Pacino in Godfather part 3).
In keeping with the series it moves along at the same pace, only it feels bigger production wise. In contrast, Milch's offering is subtle in some story/character aspects and square on the nose in others. There's plenty of closure, also refreshingly some ambiguity also remains.
Overall, it's a mighty fine TV Western movie which ties up story threads nicely. Recommend especially for Deadwood fans.
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