The Long Riders

We continue our Western sojourn with Walter Hill's The Long Riders (1980), a rather pedestrian take on the Jesse James legend. Sam Peckinpah protege Hill learned how to film action scenes from Bloody Sam, but he evidentally didn't pick up on his mentor's penchant for crafting a good story. The result is a disappointing movie that should have been much better than it is.

Outlaws Jesse and Frank James (James and Stacey Keach), Cole, Bob and Jim Younger (David, Robert and Keith Carradine), and Ed and Clell Miller (Dennis Randy Quaid) begin a career of banditry in post-Civil War Missouri, robbing banks, stagecoaches and trains. Viewed as folk heroes by the locals, their exploits bring them fame and the attention of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. After a series of shootouts and murders with the Pinkerton posse, the James gang scatters, reuniting to knock off a huge bank in Northfield, Minnesota. The robbery is badly botched; the James boys leave the Youngers behind, and return to Missouri, only to find themselves in the crosshairs of the treacherous Ford brothers (Christopher and Nicholas Guest).

Bluntly, The Long Riders is a poor piece of storytelling. Hill moves awkwardly from one set-piece to another, with all-too-brief interludes in between. Key plot points are poorly set up: the Fords get two blink-and-you'll-miss-'em scenes early on, then disappear until the end, when they betray Jesse for no reason. The gang scatters after a Pinkerton raid, then reunites (with two new, heretofore unknown members) just minutes later. When the James and Younger brothers start sniping at each other before Northfield, we wonder where this tension comes from as they've gotten along just fine up till now.

The screenplay (in which the Keach Brothers had a hand) is the primary culprit. It's pure exposition, moving from one scene to the next without drive or motivation, moving as fast as possible, doing little to develop its characters or provide an underlying story. The film is too brisk-paced to be boring but neither is it very compelling. Many scenes work on their own merits, but bereft of real context they don't amount to a whole lot.

Hill paints his outlaw-protagonists as heroes, a conceit that has worked in many other Westerns, but the script does little to enamor us to them. The gimmick of casting acting brothers as outlaw brothers is a good one, but it doesn't amount to much since all of the characters except Cole are one-note ciphers. Hill doesn't demonize the Pinkertons, but neither does he explore why the outlaws became criminals, why they were so popular, and why we should root for them. A late scene where a nosy reporter (Felice Orlandi) interviews the Youngers is too little, too late, and doesn't add anything.

In the action department, Hill definitely delivers the goods. Hill attempts to one-up Peckinpah with his bloody slow-motion shootouts, and nearly succeeds. The film's highlight is the botched Northfield robbery, a near-ten minute sequence that rivals The Wild Bunch's big shootouts for poetic barbarism. Hill's use of slow-motion, quick-editing and incredible sound - the speed fit to the images - is remarkable, and the effect is both hypnotic and horrifying. Handsome photography by Ric Waite, and a wonderful Ry Cooder score, make the movie look and sound really good.

Of the cast, David Carradine (Kill Bill) comes off best; he makes Cole a lively and interesting character despite the script's limitations. Stacey Keach is alright but brother James is a blank slate in the nominal lead role. Pamela Reed shines as Cole's feisty gal pal; James Whitmore Jr. and James Remar have nice supporting roles, and Harry Carey Jr. (The Searchers) pops up in a cameo.

The Long Riders is a disappointment, especially considering the talent involved. If Hill had put half the effort into storytelling that he had into the shootouts, this is could have been a great film. As it is, it's a mediocre Western with little to offer besides some neat action scenes.