The Long Riders

The Long Riders (1980)

Runtime: 100 minutes

Directed by: Walter Hill

Starring: The Carradine brothers, the Keach brothers, the Quaid brothers, and the Guest br others

From: United Artists

Due to me not feeling at 100% on Saturday and having football to watch on Sunday, that is why I'm going to talk about a movie that I first saw a few years ago, but it was before I started up this blog, so I might as well write about it, right? It's a western so it helps fill a genre that I don't give as much love to as I should.

The one big hook of this movie based on the lives of famous outlaws the James Brothers, the Younger Brothers, the Millers, and ultimately the Ford Brothers (given that a few years ago there was a movie which came out called The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, it sort of gives away what the ending of this film is; then again, if you've read up on the history of this gang then you'll know more than a little about the plot of this film, along with probably generally be entertained by their exploits) is that four sets of famous acting siblings were cast in those roles, thus you have James and Stacy Keach as the James Boys, David, Robert, and Keith Carradine as the Youngers, Dennis and Randy Quaid as the Millers, and Christopher and Guest as the Fords. It's a gimmick which works as every one of those brothers delivers a performance that is at least fine and is usually better than that.

This film-which I don't think is entirely accurate to the truth but hey, it's still fun-portrays the gang in a sympathetic light as they rob trains and banks to provide for their families while dealing with such things as some of the guys wanting to start families of their own and deal with the Pinkerton Detective Agency, who are on the hunt for them and the movie makes them look to be dicks, willing to kill innocent people to get their men.

Overall, it's an entertaining western and if you enjoy the real-life story then you should check this out. When you do see violence it's certainly bloody and visceral. I mean, when people get shot with a shotgun, they go flying backwars something like 20 feet through windows. It's not very realistic... but is it cool? I say yes. It's a manly movie directed by a manly man, and after the PG-13 crap news of last week, it was nice to see an R-rated film like this one.

I'll be back Wednesday night with a new review.