The Long Riders [VHS]
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VHS Movie Reviews of The Long Riders [VHS]
Movie Review: Hell, no! I'm Bob Younger. Jesse James rides with the Youngers. Now, stop the damn train!
Summary: 3 Stars
I came across the Long Riders while exploring Walter Hill's more cult oriented films like Hard Times, Streets of Fire and the Warriors. I've also been exploring the western as a genre and was curious to see a more modern filmmaker take a crack at one. I was intrigued by the gimmick of casting so many groups of real life brothers (the two Keach's as the James Brothers, the two Quaids as the Millers, the three Carradine's as the Younger gang, and the unlikely Guest Brothers as the Fords), and was a little afraid that it would distract my attention from the film. In fact this stunt casting worked perfectly for me as there was an immediate shorthand between the siblings that made the characters rich without having to spend much time fleshing them out. There's also a surprising lack of ego, with all actors getting pretty equal screentime.
Walter Hill borrows some of the visual panache in the Long Riders from the unglorified anti-violence of Sam Peckinpah, but the film is much more rooted in the 80s style of filmmaking. In fact, I'd say that this flick is the cinematic forefather of films like Young Guns and Tombstone, placing an importance on revisionist history, style and a flair for an extremely entertaining narrative over sticking to genre conventions or the strict facts. That isn't to say that's a bad thing, quite the contrary. As for its impact on Young Guns, it's surprising how many of little flourishes it borrows from the Long Riders. In the final bank robbery gone bad, Hill utilizes a really striking effect in the sound effects of the bullets zipping across the screen. Whenever a shot is going to connect, there's a special zooming build up to the moment when the bullet strikes that's really stylistic and memorable. Young Guns takes this wholesale in its final sequence as well.
Al in all the film plays a little slow, but my only real complaint is that the score can be very distracting at times, drowning out the dialogue and wrecking the intended tone of some of the scenes. There's also a extraneous bit of plot that finds Cole Younger traveling down to Texas to find his on again, off again prostitute lover that ends up in a very goofy knife match between David Carradine and James Remar, complete with a sash gripped between their teeth to keep them within striking distance. It's very heavy handed and doesn't do much for fleshing out Carradine's already intriguing portrayal of Cole Younger. I think anyone who is a fan of Spaghetti Westerns, the more stylistic entries into the genre of the late 80s, early 90s, or Any of Hills more cultish work will really enjoy this flick.
Movie Review: Robin Hood in western drag
Summary: 4 Stars
In the post civil war border states there was great resentment to the way farmers were being treated by the government and the railroads.
The Youngers and the James joined together to make their own kind of redistribution of wealth.
The acting, setting and costuming is good. The knife fight is very strange martial arts in a shoot them up western.
The telegraph and the Pinkerton detective agency did them in.
Movie Review: the classic that should set the standard
Summary: 5 Stars
What can I say, this is one of those western classic that should be the standard bearer. The dynamic of having brothers acting as brothers seems to have been the perfect cast. This movie should stand along side the other great western classics like The Sacketts, or The outlaw Josie Wales.Movie Review: Gimmicky, but it works -- just don't expect a classic
Summary: 4 Stars
Walter Hill's 1980 Western The Long Riders (his first film after the 1979 cult classic The Warriors) starts out with a gimmick -- the casting of famous Hollywood brothers as famous outlaw brothers -- but ends up as a fair addition to the genre (and it reportedly began its life as a musical!).
The main reason most people will get curious about The Long Riders is the cast. But look at that cast! It is likely to be the only place you'll see such a parade of prominent Hollywood families all together in one film.
Here's the lineup: David Carradine as Cole Younger, Keith Carradine as Jim Younger, Robert Carradine as Bob Younger; Stacy Keach as Frank James, James Keach as Jesse James; Dennis Quaid as Ed Miller, Randy Quaid as Clell Miller; Christopher Guest as Charlie Ford, Nicholas Guest as Robert Ford. (Jeff Bridges and Beau Bridges were originally offered the Ford roles but were reportedly unable to clear their schedules.)
Among this band of brothers, I was pleasantly surprised that James Keach -- whose work I was only passingly familiar with thus far and had found mostly unmemorable -- was the real standout. He draws the eye every time he is on the screen, not least because his face seems to have been carved out of rock. There's hardly a rounded surface to be seen, which just serves to make every emotion more intensely expressed.
In retrospect, this should not have been too surprising, given that the film was originally conceived by the brothers Keach as a vehicle for themselves. The familial aspect does serve to make the interrelations of the characters more palpable (unless that was just my own projection), and it's certainly worth at least one viewing, but The Long Riders is unlikely to be seen historically as anything more than a minor contribution to Western film.
Movie Review: Probably the best of the James Gang movies...
Summary: 4 Stars
This 1980 release shows, fictionally yet creditably, the history of Frank and Jesse's career as bank and train robbers. There are lots of scenes with only the Younger brothers or the Miller brothers, much like the recent "Assassination of Jesse James" bomb with Brat Pitt spent much of its time with lesser and later gang members. The difference in the two films is astounding: in "Long Riders" there is coherent dialogue, enunciated clearly, and many daytime events, so the viewer can really see what's happening. The newest James movie concentrates on the decay of the gang after the botched Northfield, Minnesota bank job, when the Youngers and Millers are no more. It builds up so slowly to the killing of Jesse by Bob Ford that one gets bored early on, and while the climax of that movie is done well, by the time it arrives one does not care. "The Long Riders" however, is long on action. Many are shot, some are killed, and during the Northfield disaster, bloody wounds are depicted graphically. The musical score by Ry Cooder is excellent, the cinematography is nice, the performances, by using the gimmick of real brothers playing brothers, are all good. If you were disappointed by the Brad Pitt film, rent this one. Better yet, watch this one FIRST, then consider the "Assassination" movie to be an overly long sequel.