David Milch, battling Alzheimers, finally finishes his TV Western.
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But he also had doubts.
Somehow, they were all surmounted.
Horses are tied to hitching posts.
Their handlers hang nearby, checking texts and griping about the storms that have just pounded Southern California.
Thats where the Milches are headed.
Milch is here to watch, not interfere.
Its here that we come to the matter of David Milchs Alzheimers diagnosis.
I became more and more of an acquired taste, he says.
The writing process became harder too.
There was, he says, a generalized incertitude and a growing incapacity.
About a year ago, Milch got up the nerve to have a brain scan.
The news was not good.
And in some ways discouraging.
Inmorethan some ways in every way I can think of.
He was not well toward the end of his life, he says.
He was every day encountering subtle differences in his condition.
But there was an unflinching dignity in the way that he carried himself and a bravery and kindness.
Milch was an executive producer and writer for the show for seven seasons.
His follow-up, the seaside parableJohn From Cincinnati,ran just one season.
But then Nic continued on his own.
Behind the scenes, Milchs life was just as troubled.
(The matter was settled out of court.)
Asked about their fiscal status today, the Milches decline to get into specifics.
It was an awakening, shall we say, Rita explains.
Weve come back from it.
Were obviously scaled back now, but otherwise life is the same.
Once they signed on, the impossible became possible.
There was trepidation, too.
Our speed is the slow telling of the tale, you know?
But only a bit.
Storytelling as remembrance was always at the heart of Milchs fiction.
Deadwoods only immutable realities were birth, death, love, and grief.
In retrospect, the show seems to have been building toward this bittersweet, multivalent conclusion.
Its also about the resonating power of loss.
You walked on the set, everybody was the same again, except they were older, McShane says.
But this time, when you finished a scene with them, you were actually saying good-bye.
The scene finds Jewel helping an exhausted Al get ready for bed as Trixie moves through the room.
she exclaims, laughing.
What a hard fuckin song!
At one point, flustered, Jewell falls off the bed, eliciting gasps from the cast and crew.
Ritas hand reaches for his shoulder as if to prevent him from falling next.
Its okay, she says quietly.
Ive fallen and I cant get up!
Jewell ad-libs as she is helped to stand upright, and the set echoes with laughter.
Lets go again, luv, yes?
McShane asks Jewell after theyve collaborated on solutions between takes, whereupon Minahan rolls the cameras again and again.
Two hours later, theyre done, and the production applauds a wrap for both actors.
What you witnessed tonight was heroic, Milch says to a visitor afterward.
I hope you remember it.
I hope you tell people about it.
The brain is Davids most exercised muscle.
Deadwood: The Moviewill air on May 31.
