Wuchak

Jul 27, 2026

8.0

***Realistic, Grim, Mature, Modern Western (actually an Eastern)*** Walter Hill's "The Long Riders" is about the James-Younger Gang, former Confederate bushwhackers in Missouri during the Civil War who kept on fighting after the conflict. The movie details the events over the next sixteen years during which the gang robbed banks, trains, and stagecoaches in Missouri, Kentucky, Iowa, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, West Virginia and Minnesota. The ill-fated Northfield, Minnesota, bank robbery on the first day of hunting season September 7, 1876, is depicted in the second half, as well as the fact that Jesse started a new gang by 1879, which carried on the criminal legacy in Alabama, Missouri, Louisiana and Mississippi. The film climaxes by showing how things ended for Jesse and Frank in 1882. \ \ There are some inaccuracies; for instance, Jesse James wasn't as wooden as James Keach portrays him, Belle Starr wasn't a prostitute, although her daughter Pearl was, and there's no record of a fight between Cole Younger and Sam Starr. Nevertheless, Hill gets the gist of the story right and he James-Younger guys are not painted as a bunch of good-guy Robin Hoods, but rather as outlaws who steal & kill for a living, justifying it by their bitter experiences in the Civil War. Nor are the Pinkerton detectives made out to be the bad guys; they make some mistakes, as is common, but they ultimately find a way to get their quarry, although it wasn't easy and took forever.\ \ The gimmick with this film is that they used real-life siblings to portray the outlaw brothers: James and Stacy Keach as Jesse and Frank; David, Keith and Robert Carradine as Cole, Jim and Bob Younger; Randy and Dennis Quaid as Clell and Ed Miller; and Christopher and Nicholas Guest as Charlie and Bob Ford.\ \ There's a bar knife fight that's an intense highlight. While this particular fight never happened, fights *like it* did (Heck, when I was a teen a friend of mine got stabbed in the gut in a bar knife fight in a small town in Ohio; so I personally *know* it happens).\ \ One striking aspect of the flick is that it's actually an Eastern rather than a Western. The events take place in the technically Eastern states noted above and was filmed largely in southwest Georgia (in Leary, Westville and Parrott) with the train robbery sequence done in Rusk in *east* Texas. I should add that Tuolumne County, California, was also used for a sequence or two, which is located southeast of Sacramento in the Sierra Nevada wilderness.\ \ David Carradine is notable as Cole Younger. Remember him as humble Kwai Chang Caine in "Kung Fu"? His character here is the express opposite. James Keach is also potent as Jesse James, a grim, hard man. You can easily see him leading this tough band of outlaws. In addition, Stacy Keach is likable as always and James Remar is memorable as the half-Indian Sam Starr. On the feminine front, Pamela Reed plays Belle Starr well, albeit coming across as lifeless and sleazy, which is unsurprising given she's a prostitute and hard drinker; meanwhile Amy Stryker is worth a mention as petite redhead Beth. Lastly, "The Long Riders" is a *modern* 'Western' even though it was released in 1980. In support, I recently let a friend borrow it, a friend who refuses to watch "old" movies (which, according to him, is anything made before 2000), and he loved it. When I told him it was from 1980 he was aghast; he couldn't believe it. To be expected with Hill at the helm, it has artistic cinematography; and maintains your attention even after seeing it several times, which is a sign of a worthy film.\ \ It was shot Aug-Nov 1979 and runs 1h 40m.\ \ GRADE: A-