The Long Riders | | Cast : | David Carradine, Stacy Keach, Dennis Quaid | | Director : | Walter Hill | | Studio : | MGM/UA Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | May 16, 1980 | | DVD Released Date : | March 20, 2001 | | Language : | Spanish (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 18, 2005 | | Summary | Why You Shouldn't Rob Banks for a Living | Content
 | There's nothing like a good shoot-em up western and this is one. Not a great film by any stretch, but a good one and very entertaining.You feel for this gang of outlaws much as you did for Bonnie and Clyde because you know their time is coming. The Pinkerton boys are on their tail but Jesse James is determined to continue robbing banks and scoffing at the G-men who want nothing more than to end this gangs' riding and robbing. The shootout at the bank in Minnesota climaxes the film and the use of slow motion and the tortured sounds of the gang members as they get shot while on horseback is very effective.My only real complaint is the fight scene in the tavern between Cole Younger(David Carradine) and his mistresses Indian husband because it seems out of character with the rest of the film. It was more of a nod to Carradines' fighting days on the TV series Kung Fu rather than having much to do with the Younger character. Outside of that it's a fun film and the use of brothers (Keach, Carradine,Guest) playing brothers is interesting and a bit unique.James Keach plays a good Jesse James, hollow-eyed and soft spoken...you can feel the danger in his character. Ironically, you find yourself rooting for the James gang over the government men who seek to undo them but justice must prevail in the end.....Anyway, it makes you think twice about robbing banks |
| Rating | | | Date | July 15, 2005 | | Summary | The Long movie... | Content
| I love western movies. Even the ones about outlaws tend to show the better side of American values like Justice and a respect for hard work and individual effort. This movie does neither.
Not only is the writing uninspiring, but the acting is stiff, unexciting and generally not even memorable enough to remark on. The gimmick of the brothers playing brothers falls way short since none of the characters are developed enough for any connection to be made between them.
Overall, a lame movie. You're much better off buying the excellent, though over the top, "Tombstone." At least you won't fall asleep like I did during the Lonnnng movie... uh, Riders.
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| Rating | | | Date | June 27, 2005 | | Summary | Learning how to make a film | Content
| This film is a step above inept, in writing and execution. The acting is decent...but the undeveloped weak script allows the actors no scenes that add up to drama, humor, or any insight to the characters. Scenes happen, end, and another starts with no sense of momentum or cohesiveness. No style in the direction, or sense of meaning in the scenes. Photography OK once in awhile, some boners in others. Music by Ry Cooder was enjoyable...made watching just palatable. Having real brothers, with a good script would have been great...oh well! |
| Rating | | | Date | June 20, 2005 | | Summary | Understated western suffers from stunt-casting | Content
| Given the actual history of the James/Younger gang, this movie should have been more exciting than it was. Admittedly, the screenplay tries to stay close to the known facts and not wander off into mythmaking and glorification, and that is commendable. Nevertheless, the first job of a movie is to entertain, and if it doesn't do that, it might as well be a documentary on the History Channel. Moreover, the film clearly sides with these men, who were vicious killers, and tries to make them sympathetic, so it is dealing in myth after all, and thus has no excuse more not being more entertaining.
Part of the reason why this movie was so flat is that the natural lead role of Jesse James is given to James Keach, Stacy Keach's brother. I now know why I've never seen James Keach in another film; he has all the charisma and charm of a tree. Maybe it would have been better to bend the rule that on-screen brothers must be played by real life brothers. On the other hand, David Carradine, as Cole Younger, nearly steals the movie, and Stacy Keach and Randy Quaid both do good performances. The female characters are all competently acted, but the movie is not finally about the women. So this is a good, watchable movie, not a bad film. It just seems like it should have been better. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 19, 2005 | | Summary | The Brothers Grim | Content
| `The Long Riders' was full of potential to be a great movie. It was the first film about the James Gang to strip them of their Robin Hood myth, and that alone was enough to make it promising. Then, it used actual sets of acting brothers to portray the James, Younger, Miller, and Ford brother - a truly intriguing touch. Its action scene were brilliantly done, and it paid scrupulous attention to all the little details of dress, equipment, and furnishings to create an authentic 19th century atmosphere. Finally, it had a truly outstanding soundtrack created by Ry Cooder. `The Long Riders" had all of this going for it, and still it managed to fall flat.
There were several reasons why this movie did not fulfill its potential. One has to do with context. The movie strips away the myth that Jesse and the boys were Robin Hoods; good boys driven to crime by the devil Yankee railroad barons and demon Yankee bankers, and only stealing to even the balances, but then does not address at all what did motivate their violent careers. The criminal career of the James/Younger gang was nearly an unbroken extension of their war time raids as Rebel Bushwhackers, and it is impossible to have any kind of an understanding of them without this context. The movie covered a broad period of time, chronicling several of their crimes, the robbery that broke the gang - all the way to Jesse's death; by not including any scenes of their war time career, it felt like the opening chapter had been jettisoned for no good reason.
The primary cause of this film's failure, however, was in its tone. The historic outlaws were wild young men - full of bravado and a love for the wild life. In the `The Long Riders' version, the actors maintained a constant grim attitude; they brought the same faces to the gambling table, bar, and brothel that they brought to a funeral. We get no sense of their joy and excitement in their youth and lawlessness. David Carradine's Cole Younger showed some genuine wildness, but it was the wildness of a man angry at the world rather than the thrill of living on the edge. James Keach as Jesse James was the very worst. History tells us that Jesse was a clever, good humored, self promoter, and that he rose above his outlaw peers in fame on the strength of his personable nature and fast talk. Jesse James as played here by Keach is dour, humorless (he went the entire movie without a smile), silent, and rather dull. There is nothing in his performance that hints at why Jesse became a legend, or why others would follow him. This grim approach to portraying the outlaws robbed the movie of the verve that might have made it gel
`The Long Riders' has enough virtues that you may still want to view it, by I strongly recommend that you rent rather than buy. File this one under "what could have been", and move on.
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