This week CintTV blog is asking about favorite westerns. This is a category I’ve been waiting for as I am a long time western movie fan. The choice of films was fairly easy for me and I give you…
The Long Riders poster - IMDB
The Long Riders (1980), which is one of the best films covering the The James-Younger Gang and the lives they lived, up to the end of their era. It is a moderately fictionalized account of the various men and women that comprise that part of history, but it tracks some of the events that historically happened reasonably well, even with taking a fair amount of artistic license, especially in regards to the Northfield Raid which is the major climax towards the end of the film and is heavily fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
The Keach brothers as the James brothers - IMDB
One of the reasons this film works so well is all of the different sets of brothers in history were portrayed by real-life brothers – the Keach brothers as the James Brothers, the Carradines as the Youngers, the Quaids as the Millers, and the Guests as the Fords. It is not often one sees a film with siblings performing together in a movie, and certainly not four sets of brothers.
The Carradine brothers as the Younger brothers - IMDB
When it comes to the actual history depicted in the film, it touchs on what would be three main historical events – the bombing of Zerelda Samuels (Frank and Jesse’s mother) farm in which their youger brother was killed, the Northfield Raid, albeit heavily dramatized, and the murder of Jesse James by the Ford brothers. Also an important point not made clear, is the marriage of Jesse James to his cousin Zee Mimms. The creative team left out the point that Zee was a first cousin.
The Guest brothers as the ford brothers (image cropped for size) - IMDB
The scenerary used in the film is gorgeous, including the James-Youngers escape from the Pinkertons ambush, where there is a beautiful waterfall in the background. The wooded scenes make for a wonderful backdrp for the film, as do many of the farm scenes.
The film also makes the point that a lot of the people in the area in Missouri from which the James brothers and the Youngers operated were supportive of the gang, with many of them being related by blood. This made it difficult for the Pinkerton agents to bring them to justice.
The account on the Northfield Raid was made to look a lot bloodier than it actually was, albeit they did kill one bank employee, Joseph Lee Heywood, whose creative defense of the bank vault by claiming it had a time-lock made him a local hero. The dialog that takes place in the bank is fictionalized except for Heywood’s claim about the vault’s time lock.
Although there have been many film productions made about the James-Younger Gang, I find this one to be the best of the ones I have seen. Granted, I haven’t seen all of them. There is one other production about the James-Younger Gang and the Northfiled Raid I have to mention and that is the musical melodrama Jesse, that was performed periodically through the Northfield Arts Guild. I appeared in it as Frank James in the 2001 production. Heavily dramatized, it does cover the story of the James-Younger Gang from events prior to the Northfield Raid in September 1876, to the murder of Jesse James a few years later.
Northfield Bank Raid reenactment during the Defeat of Jesse James Days, 2014. One of my best shots from the event.
Northfield celebrates the raid as The Defeat of Jesse James Days, with bank raid reenactments and a parade. The event depicts the history of the raid, and the defeat of the gang as the battle left two gang members dead on the streets (Clell Miller was one of two gang members left dead on the streets) and two townspeople, a Swedish immigrant caught on the street during the gun battle, and Heywood inside the bank. A few other townspeople were wounded, and most of the gang had received some wounds. Northfield has for many years acknowledged Heywood’s service and sacrifice by giving the Joseph Lee Heywood Award to a local townsperson for active community service.
The James Brothers split off shortly there after, while a posse caught up to the Youngers, along with Charlie Pitts near Medina, MN, a few days later. During the resulting gun battle, Pitts was killed, and the Youngers were shot up pretty badly, and the last Younger still conscious surrendered. The Youngers, as depicted in the film, went to prison.
The Long Riders is a fine film, with a lot of great creative talent involved in its making, with good storytelling and a bit of history mixed in. If you have never seen The Long Riders, you should consider giving it a run. And yes, another reason I chose this film is because it is an important piece of local history where I live.
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