Long Riders
With all the attention and adoration swirling around the recent Brad Pitt take on the Jesse James legend, it’s interesting to look back on this 1980 version of the tale, historically featuring four real-life sets of acting brothers for perhaps the first (and only) time. Unfortunately, it may also stand as arguably the worst WRITTEN Western ever, with dialogue so flat and banal you may want to poke out your eardrums with a q-tip. As for the cast, James Keach brings a brooding intensity but little else to the role of Jesse, maintaining a stone-faced expression most of the time that would give Buster Keaton pause. Stacy Keach is an actor I do like, but as Frank James he’s simply wasted, given so very little to work with here it’s sad. Randy Quaid turns in his trademark dumb lug performance, while brother Dennis plays perhaps the biggest fool of his storied career. Christopher and Nicolas Guest as The Fords bring an unneeded Heckyll and Jekyll camaraderie to what should be two of the film’s most important characters. Keith Carradine slyly ambles his way thru his role, with most of his screen time given to a poorly developed love triangle, and Robert Carradine just acts goofy most of the time. Only David Carradine, as Cole Younger, manages to rise above the material and bring some much-needed zip to his lines and the movie in general. If anyone’s truly the star here, it is him and a knife fight in a bar between him and and a cameoing James Remar brings a nice change of pace. The women in the cast come off equally as bad, with only Pamela Reed providing any spark as Cole’s prostitute girlfriend. Running at 99 minutes, the film feels like it’s 3 hours long, probably because you grow weary of the actors making fools of themselves every time they open their mouths. The upside is, every time somebody gets shot, they REALLY look like they’ve been shot, with some good gore effects keeping the viewer awake. And Walter Hill has his directorial highlight with the Northfield bank robbery towards the end, building the suspense well and using slow motion effectively during the ensuing shootout. In the end, a mixed bag, and should only be viewed by fans of the Pitt version for comparison purposes…
5/10