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The Long Riders

Posted on October 20, 2021January 2, 2022 by Village Vidiot

“The Long Riders,” October 20, 2021 (1980), DVD.  The brothers Carradine, Quaid, Keach and the Guests star in this energetic and interesting Walter Hill Western charting the rise and fall of the James-Younger gang of bank and train robbers whose exploits terrorized and captivated the nation’s interest after the Civil War.  Guerilla secessionist racist raiders during the Civil War, they faced Northern hostility although Missouri secessionists and racists undermined efforts to capture and punish them.  Their failed efforts to rob a bank in Minnesota led to the James Brothers eventual retreat to Missouri where Jesse was, himself assassinated by former ‘companions’ paid by the Pinkertons.  The film does a good job of skirting the Robin Hood mythology that poisons early cinematic portrayals of these men.  Well-acted and well written, it none the less stops short of portraying these men as the murderous butchers they were.  Stacey Keach (who also cowrote) as Frank James and David Carradine as Cole Younger are especially sharp.

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