Semiquincentennial Movie Project #33: The Long Riders

 

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

Week #33: Minnesota -

 

A note on the state flag: The above design was adopted in 2024. For much of my life it was different:

 

 

The state of Minnesota was established on May 11, 1858 

Details about Minnesota:

State bird: common loon

State flower: lady slipper

State tree: red pine

Additional historical trivia:

(The obvious first fact I have to include...): A local Minneapolis station was the first place we saw the classic TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K).

The L.A. Lakers basketball team originally played in the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" (thus explaining the origin of "Lakers").

Minnesota is the origin point of the Mississippi River and runs 681 miles or so through the state. (Compare that to Mississippi which only has about 400 miles of the river... so why not Minnesota River?)

The first pop-up toaster was invented in Minneapolis. It cost $15. (In 1920 the average wage was about $40 a week...)

The former stadium called the Metrodome in Minneapolis is the only place where there has been held a Super Bowl and a World Series and a NCAA Final Four. 

Famous people born in Minnesota: Prince, Judy Garland, Bob Dylan, Charles (Peanuts) Schulz, F, Scott Fitzgerald, J. Paul Getty, Roger Maris and Vice-President Walter Mondale.

 

 

The Long Riders (1980):

A unique film in the annals of Hollywood film history, The Long Riders brought together not one, not two, not three, but four sets of brothers on screen. Not only that, but it brought together actual acting brothers to play the roles of the brothers in the film's story. 

 

Over the years there had been numerous attempts to bring the story of the James-Younger gang to the big screen. Beginning in 1921, with the real son of Jesse James playing his legendary father, Jesse had been played by the likes of Tyrone Power, Audie Murphy and Robert Duvall. His brother Frank had been played by the likes of Henry Fonda, Jeffrey Hunter and Bill Paxton. The Younger brothers had been played by, among others, Alan Hale, Jr and Frank Gorshin (which, despite the familiar comedic names, was NOT a comedy) and Cliff Robertson. 

But in 1980, one of my favorite directors, Walter Hill, managed to bring together four acting families of brothers together to play characters that were actually brothers themselves. The Carradine family, three guys, David, Keith and Robert (whose father, John Carradine, was an acting legend himself ) played Cole, Jim and Bob Younger. James and Stacy Keach played Jesse and Frank James. Dennis and Randy Quaid played Ed and Clell Miller. And to round out this family outing, Christopher and Nicholas Guest played Charley and Robert Ford.

The Keaches as the James brothers

 

The Quaids as the Miller brothers

The Carradines as the Younger brothers

 

 

 

 

 

 

The result was this film, which was Hill's follow up to what is what I unabashedly claim as my second favorite movie of all time, The Warriors.  Continuing a theme of making "heroes" out of outlaws, the movie delves into the lives of the James - Younger gang in the late 1880's. The story begins, as is fitting, with the James boys, Frank (Stacy Keach) and Jesse (James Keach), along with the Younger brothers, Cole (David Carradine), Jim (Keith Carradine) and Bob (Robert Carradine) robbing a bank. With them are the Millers, Ed (Dennis Quaid) and Clell (Randy Quaid).

During the robbery, Ed, who is a bit of a loose cannon, shoots one of the tellers, for no apparent reason other than he thinks the teller is lying when he tells Ed the bank doesn't have a safe. Even though Ed is told by Cole that the teller is not lying. In the end, after the robbery, Jesse is disgusted with Ed and kicks him out of the gang. (At this point, I, for one am disappointed, not because it is not historically accurate... it is. What I am disappointed in is that it looks like I won't be seeing Dennis Quaid any more in this picture, and I like DQ...)

 

There are several long (and sometimes seemingly interminable)  scenes that involve what is basically character development. The lives of several of the characters become intertwined with relationship struggles as the robbers try to develop romantic entanglements with female counterparts. Of course, these guys being robbers, "good girls" are not part of it. There is Cole's love relationship with Belle (Pamela Reed), for instance. Belle is a prostitute, but maybe that's the best Cole could ever hope for, given his line of work. He even tells her that's the main reason he loves he, because she is a fallen woman. 

Jim doesn't have much better luck. He's kind of hooked on Beth (Amy Stryker), who is a much more reputable woman.  But it turns out that Ed (who wasn't just an early "one scene and done" character after all... thank God...) has stolen her from out of Jim's world.

 

In between the several opening sequences of character studies we do get some of the action that was the initial draw for people like me, who look to the western as a good old shoot-em-up. The gang rob a stagecoach, with a humorous scene involving the boys taking the clothes of a high and mighty character leaving him standing there in his skivvies with his wife. They also have a train robbery sequence. 

 

All this does is really piss off the Pinkerton men, the hired law enforcement group, led by a man named Rixley, played by James Whitmore, Jr. (Whitmore, Jr is the son of James Whitmore, whom many of you will probably remember as the trustee Brooks in The Shawshank Redemption). Rixley is almost as much a villain as the outlaws in this outing, exhibiting an obsessive drive to capture the James - Younger gang.

 

The story includes some memorable scenes, one of my favorite being when Cole Younger goes head to head in a knife fight with the half-breed that Belle had married while Cole was out doing his thing. The actor who plays Sam Starr is vaguely recognizable, but it was only when I read the credits that I found out it was James Remar. Remar is a veteran of Walter Hill films. His first big role was as Ajax in the previously mentioned The Warriors, and would be the bad guy that Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy were trying to track down in 48 Hrs. 

 

Eventually we get to what is the ultimate downfall of the gang when they try to rob a bank in Northfield, Minnesota.  (Note: this is the reason this film is counted as my Minnesota entry in the Semiquincentennial Movie Project, even though much of the action occurs elsewhere...sue me...) The problems mount during the robbery as nearly everything goes wrong, including the fact that the Pinkertons had been aware of the planned robbery and set up an ambush.

 

The appearance of the Guest brothers as the Ford brother, Charley and Robert, is minimal, at best. I think the only reason they were even included was to set up the final denouement as (spoiler alert, but is a part of history, so you may already know...) Charley shoots Jesse in the back a few years later.

And Christopher hardly even resembles the character some of would remember, Count Rugen, "the six-fingered man" from The Princess Bride...

The Long Riders was not a huge success. It budgeted at $million and only managed to pull in $15 million during it's initial run. But then, the number of movies that were financial boons for Walter Hill as director were not that many. And the big successes, financially speaking, involved the fact that major box office draws were cast in the leading roles; 48 Hrs. and Another 48 Hrs. (Eddie Murphy), Red Heat (Arnold Schwazenegger) and Brewster's Millions (Richard Pryor). Hill still had enough success that he continued (and still continues) to make movies, of varied success. As I stated in my review of The Warriors and Streets of Fire, I consider him to be one of the best directors for what I call "guy movies".

The film has an 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It got mostly positive reviews upon it's release. Roger Ebert has referenced it as "as a prime example of Hill’s strong visual energy, atmospheric tension, and mastery over kinetic action and male camaraderie."  Ebert's counterpart, Gene Siskel, gave the movie 3 ½ stars, saying  "the Western will live as long as directors make Westerns as fresh and exciting as The Long Riders, which tells an oft-told story uncommonly well."

My personal view is that the action makes up for those frequent, rather dull, character establishing scenes involving the gang's trials and tribulations with their female counterparts. Could the movie have done without them? Maybe not. The point of these scenes is to present the characters as some kind of "anti-heroes", I think, and probably are needed so we don't have a film of an entire cast of unlikable characters. It goes without saying that the Pinkertons are not exactly presented as paragons of justice. But the James - Younger gang has very few really sympathetic members, either. Even Frank, who is probably the most likable candidate for the guy you want to root for is not entirely without his bad side.

Overall, I like this film. Not nearly as much as those gang films mentioned above, but still it is an entertaining piece.

Until next time, drive safely, folks!

Quiggy