The Newton Boys (1998, Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Skeet Ulrich) – Classic Film Review 1199

The real-life story of 1920s Uvalde, Texas bank-robbing brothers (Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Skeet Ulrich, Vincent D’Onofrio) who knock over more than 80 banks across the US and into Canada, where their attempt to rob some bank satchels in the street nearly goes disastrously wrong.

Their retirement is cut short when they sink their money into useless oil wells, and they plan a multi-million Federal Reserve train robbery out of Chicago, but the Feds are about to turn up the heat when one of the brothers is accidentally shot by their nitro-glycerine expert Brentwood Glasscock (played by Dwight Yokam).

This 1998 updated Western is meticulously handled by director Richard Linklater in a style that recalls both Bonnie and Clyde and 70s revisionist Westerns like Bad Company. The movie’s a slow but steady burn, concentrating on character and situation rather than action, though we do follow the course of several of the robberies. The period feel and production are beautifully realised, and the performances are spot-on, with McConaughey as gang leader having by far the most to do.

The Newton Boys really does grow on you, and it makes the characters surprisingly compelling and subversively sympathetic.

Stay tuned for the final credits when, in old age, two of the real-life brothers tell their stories – one of them on the Johnny Carson Tonight Show! There’s surprisingly little violence, considering the topic, as the brothers didn’t believe in killing.

Linklater and Clark Lee Walker base their screenplay on Claude Stanush and David Middleton’s book.  It was filmed in Austin, Bartlett, New Braunfels and San Antonio, Texas.

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1177

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/