For some reason, I thought The Long Riders (1980) was later in director Walter Hill’s career, mid-1980s, rather than right in the middle between The Warriors and Southern Comfort. The most notable aspect about this western is the decision to cast acting brothers in the main roles concerning the outlaw Jesse James and his gang – James and Stacy Keach as Jesse and Frank (they also produced, cowrote and originated the project); David, Robert and Keith Carradine as the Younger boys; Dennis and Randy Quaid; and even Nicolas and Christopher Guest as Robert and Charley Ford. With such a big cast, Jesse James is less the focus in this telling, and James Keach plays him first as a taciturn planner then later as more disgruntled leader. There’s a pastoral and lyrical quality to the way the riders are filmed in slow mo at the start, or the quaint farm visits and the wedding dances (music by Ry Cooder), which eventually gives way after the first act to Sam Peckinpah styled slow-motion blood letting (the Northfield Minnesota Raid is a gripping sequence) that aims to shock. Of the cast, David Carradine stole the show for me with his rougish style as Cole Younger (that, and the knife fight with a “chew” against Walter Hill regular James Remar). Pamela Reed impresses as a tough prostitute and Mr. Blue himself, bank robber turned actor/screenwriter Edward Bunker is in the supporting cast. At the same time, for such a big cast and historical topic, the movie clips along at 99 minutes, Hill also tipping his hat to the westerns of old by being very direct and functional. I liked The Long Riders fine enough, and it is worth viewing for western fans and Walter Hill completists. It’s streaming for free on SBS OnDemand until the end of the week.
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