Product Description

In six months, the population of Cromwell, Oklahoma, has climbed from 500 to 10,000. Boom times have come to the oil-rich town. So has a new breed of criminal. You Know My Name is the fact-based story of Bill Tilghman, a lawman and former partner of Wyatt Earp confronted by an emerging era when outlaws run whiskey instead of cattle and are likely to tote a tommy gun as carry a six-gun. An ideally cast Sam Elliott plays Tilghman, whose life takes on a newfangled wrinkle of its own. Tilghman makes a moving picture of his Old West exploits; and the success of that silent film, The Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws, spreads his reputation like a brushfire. But that reputation may mean nothing to a thug (Arliss Howard) who hides behind a badge.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11158 in DVD
• Brand: TURNER HM ENTERTAINM
• Released on: 2006-05-30
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 94 minutes

Features

• In six months, the population of Cromwell, Oklahoma, has climbed from 500 to 10,000. Boom times have come to the oil-rich town. So has a new breed of criminal.You Know My Name is the fact-based story of Bill Tilghman, a lawman and former partner of Wyatt Earp confronted by an emerging era when outlaws run whiskey instead of cattle and are likely to tote a tommy gun as carry a six-gun. An ideally c

Amazon.com
Cromwell, Oklahoma, 1924: an oil boomtown full of saloons, cathouses, mud-and-crude-oil streets, bootleg whisky, and gun-toting roughnecks. Technology had overpassed the Old West, in the form of Model T's and oil rigs, but the mentality had stayed much the same. Add to that a population that's a bit tweaky from a combination of cocaine and morphine that had been going around, and you have a recipe for trouble. Enter Marshall Bill Tilghman, a contemporary of Wyatt Earp. Tilghman had made a silent film, The Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws, and on the strength of his reputation had been called into service as chief of police in the hopes of restoring order to a lawless community. In this fact-based story, Sam Elliott plays Tilghman, a larger-than-life character who was one of the last of a dying era. Many Prohibition agents became renegades in the '20s; Tilghman's nemesis was Wiley (Arliss Howard), a rogue agent strung out on drugs and dealing in bootleg liquor himself. Howard's performance is as overwrought as Elliott's is restrained; together the two offset each other well. The flinty Elliott brings a measure of warmth to his role, especially in his relationship to his wife and kids; he's perfectly cast as the man on the cusp of a new age. As a modern-era Western, You Know My Name rises well above its made-for-cable roots to stand as a good character study and action picture. --Jerry Renshaw

Customer Reviews

The Greatest of Us All
This movie depicts the final days of my distant relative, Bill Tilghman. Tilghman enforced the law from the 1880's, as Marshal of Dodge City through the Indian Territory days in Oklahoma to statehood and Roaring '20s gangsters.
At 70, he was about the only man left alive who had tamed a wild cowtown. The Governor called on him to bring law and order to Cromwell, the oiltown known as "the meanest town in Oklahoma." He did it, though did not live to see his work totally completed.
Sam Elliott does a wonderful job of portraying this lawman who was better known in his day than the Wyatt Earps and such we are familiar with today. While a few cinematic prerogatives were taken, William Kent Harrison stayed pretty close to history and clearly did a lot of research. He beautifully depicts the wonderment of an old West lawman coping with gangsters in T-model Fords and ignoring the ethics that characterized even such desperadoes as Bill Doolin in the 1890's.
Particularly interesting were the vignettes of Tilghman's 1915 movie, "The Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws," which he and many of the people who were really there starred in.
In the early 1900's, famed lawman Bat Masterson was asked about the old lawmen of the West. Without hesitation, he said "Tilghman was the greatest of us all."

A Good Effort with a Great Western Actor
Just who are our Old West heroes? Should they be vicious thugs like Jesse James? Lazy (albeit likeable) bums like Butch and Sundance? The outlaws get all the press but it was the folks like Tilghman who deserve our admiration. In recent years, some of the lawmen have gotten some credit; Wyatt Earp may or may not deserve admiration, but Tilghman certainly does. This film treats the last days of the last of the old west lawmen, a man whom Masterson called "the best of us all". Sam Elliott does a marvelous job of making Tilghman real; the movie, though, needs some work. I would love to see Hollywood apply some real muscle to the story of the Old West lawman, because Tilghman would be the best and only choice for a subject. Bring in Sam Elliott to reprise the role and let him really stretch his legs in this role. This movie though will serve until that happens. Watch this one and remember...this man was REAL and actually died with his boots on.

you know my name
Most of the reviews of this movie say it has a lousy plot, what few critics probably realize,however, is that it is a true story (some liberties were taken of course.). I am Bill Tilghman's great-great granddaughter, and I had some problems with the story, too, mostly in what they chose to portray. I think that the early days of Bill Tilghman's life were much more interesting than the last few months. It's too bad they didn't focus more on the material in the "Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws" movie that Bill made with his partner, Benny Kent. Unless the audience knows a lot about Bill Tilghman, they wouldn't understand the "flashback" sequences. I also think Sam Elliott was mis-cast ! I have spoken to many living old-timers that knew Bill - they say he was a very unassuming and quiet man. He wasn't a tough guy at all. Still, I was glad the movie was made - many people never read history unless they've seen the movie first !