Undescribable Perfection

An absolute waste of money

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

If you are a fan of the western genre then this film will leave you satisfied. Just like the old stories about great train robbers, and bank heists... the younger gang along with the James' boys team up to race across the US states creating mayhem wherever they go although considered post modern robin hoods at the same time. It was an incredible thrill ride mainly for the reason that all the actors were related to each other.The Carridines, the Quaids, and the Keaches. Some of the most prolific actors during the eighties. A tale about desperation after the civil war. Struggling with finances the James' brothers join or rather form a posse to ride between states robbing banks, and trains to feed their desires. At one point one of the Miller boys, (Dennis Quaid) shoots an innocent bystander resulting in his expulsion from the group only to go off, and try to live a normal life.In the meantime his other brother (Randy Quaid) sticks with the group in light of the circumstances. Every one of them try to live a decent existence of either farming or another trade but the call of the wild keeps them moving forward with a last job in Missouri where they are ambushed by the state marshal. This culminates into one the greatest chases on the silver screen where the group during their escape rides through an entire building on horseback.Many called it the most violent movie to date until Scarface hit the screen starring Al Pacino. Yet the idea of a free nation in the west by hand gun and pure grit tells it as more poetic for the fallen south. Many who knew Jesse James, thought of him as a hero than a killer except the tale in this film says he was shot by two gunman in his home. Others say he escaped to Mexico or was seen in another part of the country. His death albeit mysterious remains debatable. As for the other part of the clan they lived out their lives in prison as it was told in the history books.The long riders will remain as one of the best told stories about the younger gang, and how their lives changed the way the law oversees its citizens when it comes to pure determination, fortitude, and audacity. Not all live by the law, but when it comes down to family, there is no law in existence that can change the heart of those who remain faithful to one another. Highly recommended to those who love westerns.

The western is not what it once was. Remember that the first American movie (1903) was a western, "The Great Train Robbery." Not long after, heroes like Tom Mix and William S. Hart dominated the silent screen of the Old West. In 1928, "In Old Arizona" became the first talkie western. Over the next several decades, the genre continued to attract audiences. Even though the peak probably occurred in the early 1960s, the 1950s decade became the best decade of the brand, and not only because John Wayne and Randolph Scott were at their crests. In the 1959-1960 television season, no fewer than 26 westerns appeared on prime time. There had always been a major distinction of who were the good guys and the bad guys. Each had their roles, and audiences knew who was who. It should be noted that even in some earlier westerns like "Jesse James" (1939) the outlaws were given sympathetic treatment. The characters were made likable. But beginning in the mid-1960s, the format of the western changed. Revisionism and anti-westerns were the vogue as they became more cynical and darker. European westerns made an impact, and the anti-hero was born. The code of the former good guys changed: Sometimes there was little to distinguish who was good and who was bad. Unlike those well-spoken and compassionate good guy cowboys like Hart, Mix, and Gene Autry, the newer "heroes" (like Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman) were often flawed. Empathy abated, and some broke the law; a few were even murderous. Likewise, the language of the good guys turned crude. Throughout the 1970s the old-time western was obviously in decline; John Wayne's final movie was "The Shootist" in 1976. The days of "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" (1955-1961) had long passed. Just compare "Rio Grande" (1950) or "Warpath" (1951) with "The Wild Bunch" (1969) or "Soldier Blue" (1970), or try to equate any Gene Autry western with "Cry Blood, Apache" (1970)."The Long Riders" gives us an early aspect of the post-modern western, a style that tended to choose atmosphere over form and still sometimes blurred the distinction between good and bad. The heroes may or may not be anti-heroes. So were the "protagonists" of "The Long Riders" working-class heroes or just bad guys? The answer is that they were outlaws, but not sadistic villains. The focus of "The Long Riders" is on the highlights of the James-Younger gang of the nineteenth century Midwest (not the Far West). The supporting population was mostly sympathetic to the James-Younger gang as they were looked upon as rebelling against the hated Yankees. In summary, the film highlights their train and bank robberies after the Civil War; the acceptance of danger by the James-Younger women; the Pinkerton National Detective Agency methods of hunting down the gang; the killing of John Younger by a Pinkerton detective (1874); the exploding flare thrown into the James home that maimed Jesse/Frank's mother and killed his half-brother Archie (1875); the disaster at Northfield, Minnesota that finished the Youngers and destroyed the gang (1876); and the traitorous act of Bob Ford (1882), the dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard. Four sets of real life brothers play the four historic families of the Wild West: the Keaches are the James, the Carradines are the Youngers, the Quaids are the Millers, and the Guests are the Fords. James and Stacy Keach play Jesse and Frank James, respectively; David, Keith and Robert Carradine are Cole, Jim and Bob Younger (and since there are not enough brothers, Kevin Brophy plays 4th brother John Younger, although he is a cousin in the movie) James; Dennis and Randy Quaid are Ed and Clell Miller; and Christopher and Nicholas Guest play the backstabbers Charlie and Bob Ford. Bob plugged Jesse in the back of the head as he adjusted a framed copy of the saying "God bless our home." Actually Jesse was just dusting the picture. The movie does some romanticizing of the gang, although the early murderous act of Ed Miller is portrayed brutally. Then again, Jesse dismisses Miller for his action against an innocent civilian. What ultimately makes the movie watchable is its favorable aspects. These positives include the (already explained) imaginative casting, top-notch acting, remarkable period detail, outstanding editing, and great photography. But also note there is violence and that the history is not always accurate (like the confrontation between Cole Younger and Sam Starr that never happened). Then again it is accurate enough. For instance, the gang did wear dusters at Northfield and Frank James did turn himself in to the law; he was later acquitted.

THE LONG RIDERS isn't as gritty as THE GREAT NORTHFIELD, MINNESOTA RAID nor as theatrical as, say, TOMBSTONE (another movie about a real life shootout), but it IS super-stylized, with an impressive cast. If I have one complaint, it's that the historical background of "the James gang" is only briefly touched upon: it would've been interesting to see how the Civil War atrocities that were committed BY and AGAINST some of these men resulted in the formation of the gang- from the loss of personal property to the acts of outright murder they then committed themselves. I've never bought into the idea that these men were Robin Hoods (I've never read any documentation to that effect); they were robbin' hoods, and they were murderers. THE LONG RIDERS is a romanticized version of what was for many a true life horror story. It would be interesting to see this story from THAT perspective. (And I've always thought it telling that the gang was decimated by armed citizens and not by Law Enforcement.)

The American West has provided an endless amount of true-life stories that have become legends of our nation's history. Inevitably, of course, this means that men that are branded as "outlaws" have become a part of all that. One such gang of outlaws was the one led by Frank and Jesse James that terrorized a large chunk of the Midwest in the years following the Civil War, and right up to the first years of the 20th century. That legend, unsurprisingly, has seen its share of films being made by Hollywood. But perhaps the most provocative of the bunch is the one made by action film stalwart Walter Hill at the turn of the 1980s. That film was THE LONG RIDERS.This take on the venerable outlaw legend is notable for having sets of brothers play the outlaws: Stacy and James Keach play the James Brothers'; the Carradines (Keith, Robert, David) are the Youngers; the Quaids (Dennis and Randy) play the Miller Brothers; and Christopher and Nicholas Guest portray the Fords. During the 1870s and 1880s, these men rack up a series of felonies so long and so brutal that they become oversized legends of their time, and quickly become the focus of the equally legendary Pinkerton detective agency (the frontier forerunner to the FBI). But the methods the Pinkertons use to hunt down the James/Younger boys are not only unconventional, but even criminal at times themselves, earning the scorn of a lot of people, especially those close to the boys in the states of Missouri and Tennessee. The end result is a blood-soaked affair that climaxes when the gang attempts to rob a bank in Northfield, Minnesota, in a raid that only nets them a lot of bloodshed since it was all set up by the Pinkertons and that the entire town was waiting for them. All three of the Youngers are so badly wounded that the Jameses abandon them. Those that are not wounded are eventually captured by the Pinkertons. Only the Fords were ever offered a deal: to turn state's evidence and track down the James Brothers, which they indeed took.Made on what was a fairly sizeable budget for a Western ($10 million), THE LONG RIDERS did, however, score quite well at the box office; and as a result, the film was perhaps the last great Western to be a hit before the monstrous critical and box office debacle of HEAVEN'S GATE came along at year's end in 1980, all but decimating the Western as a genre. Hill and his crew were sticklers for authenticity, and it shows in every frame of the film, with each set of acting brothers doing convincing turns as the outlaws, and with Pamela Reed giving a fine turn as soon-to-be-outlaw cowgirl Belle Starr, a loose associate of the James/Younger gang. Given the period in which it was made, no one should be surprised that the outlaws are seen as the heroes, and the Pinkertons as more or less the heavies (since their methods of hunting down the gang are terribly unethical at times). And since Hill wrote the screenplay for director Sam Peckinpah's 1972 crime thriller classic THE GETAWAY, and loosely studied under that director, no one should be shocked either that THE LONG RIDERS is a fairly violent film, with bloody shootouts rendered in slow-motion (though Hill's editing style is not as cascading, nor quite as memorable, as Peckinpah's was for, say, THE WILD BUNCH).Filmed primarily on locations in northern California, Texas, and Georgia, THE LONG RIDERS benefits greatly not only from its casting and its period authenticity, but also from the rustic, down-home country/folk music score by Americana legend Ry Cooder, who would work again with Hill on films like STREETS OF FIRE, SOUTHERN COMFORT, TRESPASS, JOHNNY HANDSOME, LAST MAN STANDING, and GERONIMO: AN American LEGEND. It is sad that the Western genre had basically entered its twilight by the time THE LONG RIDERS was released, and that HEAVEN'S GATE (released, ironically, by the same studio, United Artists) would all but bury it in the ground for a long time, because this film has a lot to recommend to it. It belongs squarely in the traditions that both Peckinpah and Sergio Leone set forth in the 1960s, that in which the demarcation between black and white was really quite gray, and where right and wrong were determined by the participants, and not a half-baked sense of morality. Hill, who can sometimes be an uneven director, nevertheless understood that better than most, which is a big reason THE LONG RIDERS is one of the best of the latter breed of that most distinctly American of film genres.