The Highwaymen

The cinematography, sets and costumes were all, first rate. It's this kind of attention to detail which sets this movie apart from some others. Woody Harrelson is the stand-out performer to me, but Costner more than carries his weight. The atmosphere of austerity in the Western States is palpable. Once again Netflix has nailed it, keep it up guys.

Well, it's a hunt. And not much of it at that. The story lies within a very narrow confine of our two lead characters. There's enough background to make sense. Screenplay is mostly taut and the direction is good. But it is Harrelson and Costner that bring it all to mean much more than its mere sum. Both are excellent ... especially Costner who takes to westerns and baseball flicks like duck to water. Watch it for these two for there's not much else that you cannot gather from wikipedia.

Nevertheless one of the better addition to Netflix. Nice!

We all saw the movie Bonnie & Clyde (1967) directed by Arthur Penn. In France, we all heard the eponymous song (Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg, 1968). The Highwaymen is a mirror version with two retired Rangers in pursuit of the infamous outlaws Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, considered as Robin Hood and his beloved wife by the plebs. A dead or alive hunt, in the 30's. Knowing that dead is a priori more practical, we suspect from the outset, even if we do not know the story, that it will probably be the chosen solution. In many aspects, I perceive the atmosphere of Impardonnable (1992) directed by Clint Eastwood, with its predictable and ineluctable ending, with cars and heavy machine guns instead of horses and Remingtons.

The actors, the photography, the costumes, the cars, the atmosphere of the post-1929 Great Depression, the rhythm, the dialogues, the soundtrack, ... This is an excellent movie! As a synthesis: 8/9 of 10.

This is an extremely well put together, engaging and entertaining telling of the pursuit of Bonnie and Clyde. Woody Harrelson is at the top of his form. He's played the part of the hardbitten lawman before, but it keeps getting better. And Costner does almost as well. The interplay is absorbing and extremely well written and acted.

In western culture we love our bandit myths and legends, which for some reasons celebrate some fairly nasty characters. Knowing the real story of Bonnie and Clyde, as opposed to the myth created by the contemporary news media and J. Edgar Hoover, always made Arthur Penns near worshipful portrayal of these two blood drenched spree murderers jarring. Bonnie and Clyde were bloodthirsty sociopaths, who in fact ambushed and murdered a fair number of people, including shooting unarmed store clerks in the back. Bonnie and Clyde were not "sticking it to the man" robbing big business like banks as much as they were in fact robbing and killing owners of small stores and then committing cold blooded murder of policemen trying to stop the mass murder spree.

The ultimate "ambush" of Bonnie and Clyde was not some planned execution, it was the result of the simple fact that those two had, withing seconds of being stopped, routinely murdered police who stopped them. They also did most of their murders with simple revolvers and sawed off shotguns, and almost none of the guns used were machine guns (a documented invention of Hoover's FBI; of the twenty or so people Bonnie and Clyde shot exactly one was shot with a machine gun). Hoover was fixated on above all else a) trying to prove that his agency's high tech of the time was the best avenue, despite all evidence to the contrary, b) distracting from, even to the point of denying the existence of, organized crime that Prohibition he supported had created. Hence his spinning of "celebrity" criminals like Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde, which also fit his narrative that we needed a national police force.

In fact FBI in fact made a mess out of their pursuit of Bonnie and Clyde, and it was old fashioned policing by two standard state lawmen that put an end to their violent spree.

So watch this film to see great buddy cop tension, and character interplay. Seriously as good as True Detective level. And a subtle subtext of well done but not over the top critique of Penn's worshipful portrayal of these two hyperviolent criminals in his 1967 film. The bumbling lawmen myth attached to to the 1967 film is also blown away. Bonnie and Clyde's murder and crime spree ranged over an area of 600,000 square miles, and it was old fashioned hard-bitten police work that got them.

Lastly the period work is another very well done element. Not just the visual elements, but the the dialogue. Instead of the fictitious Hepburn-Tracy like, now laughable, staccato dialogue of the 1967 film, we get a much more accurate laconic way of speaking at that time. More is said in fewer words between Harrelson and Costner.

Give it a watch, you will not be disappointed, although your prior positive views of the one-dimensional 67 film, may change.

It's 1934. Bonnie Parker helps Clyde Barrow escape a Texas prison work gang. Governor Miriam "Ma" Ferguson (Kathy Bates) faces public pressure. Frank Hamer (Kevin Costner) is recruited to be a highwayman with orders to take down the rampaging fugitives. He and his partner Maney Gault (Woody Harrelson) are former Texas Rangers which was disbanded in those more civilized times. The duo tracks the fugitives to their ultimate ambush deaths in Louisiana.

Netflix seems to be taking over these medium sized films. This one tackles Bonnie & Clyde but from the other side. It's fascinating that Bonnie & Clyde were and continue to be media sensations. There are countless versions of them on the small screen and the big screen. They are cultural icons. They're basically shorthand for criminal Romeo & Juliet. They are cool and hot. They are the excitement and the romantic. Almost nothing is given to those who hunted and killed them. So it's really fascinating to see these icons with the eyes of their pursuers. Whether it's Costner, the time period, or the criminal icons, this reminds me of a harsher and less glossy The Untouchables. Bonnie & Clyde are more like side characters. They are the shark in Jaws. This paints a heroic weary picture of Hamer and Gault. These are old gunslingers from the Ole West. The truth is a little muddier. The ambush is interesting which does something more than the usual. The production is pretty good although I was concerned about authenticity at the beginning. It is closer than most Hollywood production. These are great characters. Costner and Harrelson are well within their elements. This is an engaging movie as a companion piece to the countless Bonnie & Clyde movies.