The Long Riders **** (1980, Stacy Keach, James Keach, David Carradine, Keith Carradine, Robert Carradine, Dennis Quaid, Randy Quaid) – Classic Movie Review 3406

Director Walter Hill’s thrilling 1980 film version of the well-known, much told story of the Jesse James outlaw gang of bank robbers starts with the useful gimmick of four sets of actual brothers in the star parts and turns it into a casting triumph. Hill said the plan was to keep the jokes funny and the bullets real. ‘It is about moral choices. I think people who object to violence shouldn’t go to the movies.’

Stacy and James Keach play Frank and Jesse James. David, Keith and Robert Carradine are Cole, Jim and Bob Younger. Dennis and Randy Quaid are Ed and Clell Miller. Christopher and Nicholas Guest are Charlie and Bob Ford. Jeff Bridges and Beau Bridges were to play the Ford brothers but they could not fit it in.

Written by James Keach and Stacy Keach, Bill Bryden, Steven Phillip Smith, this is a robust and exciting treatment of a tale already memorably told in The Return of Frank James (1940) and The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1971). Hill works with careful attention to period and an eagle eye on the legend.

Hill goes the Sam Peckinpah route of violent action and slow motion shoot-outs in a carefully crafted film that revels in its story and themes. Hill has a great feel for the West and shows his true love of Westerns.

The brothers are ideally cast and all the acting is a success, though James Keach and David Carradine are particularly powerful and persuasive as Jesse and Cole, while Pamela Reed gets a look-in as Belle Starr. Also in the cast are James Remar as Sam Starr, Harry Carey Jr, Kevin Brophy, Fran Ryan and James Whitmore Jr. Keeping it in the family, there are appearances too by Ever Carradine, daughter of Robert Carradine and Kalen Keach, James Keach’s son, as Jesse James’s son Jesse E James.

Cinematographer Ric Waite makes it look good and, as was to become usual with Hill, Ry Cooder provides a great, famous score, his first for a Walter Hill film. Writer Bryden has a cameo as the saloon singer.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3406

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