Dreadfully Boring

Absolutely Fantastic

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

One of the top best westerns ever made - the whole atmosphere in the move and the shootings is outstanding - the performance of the actors are spot-on and the music in the movie is superb - can be watched again and again...

If you are a fan of the western genre then this film will leave you satisfied. Just like the old stories about great train robbers, and bank heists... the younger gang along with the James' boys team up to race across the US states creating mayhem wherever they go although considered post modern robin hoods at the same time. It was an incredible thrill ride mainly for the reason that all the actors were related to each other.The Carridines, the Quaids, and the Keaches. Some of the most prolific actors during the eighties. A tale about desperation after the civil war. Struggling with finances the James' brothers join or rather form a posse to ride between states robbing banks, and trains to feed their desires. At one point one of the Miller boys, (Dennis Quaid) shoots an innocent bystander resulting in his expulsion from the group only to go off, and try to live a normal life.In the meantime his other brother (Randy Quaid) sticks with the group in light of the circumstances. Every one of them try to live a decent existence of either farming or another trade but the call of the wild keeps them moving forward with a last job in Missouri where they are ambushed by the state marshal. This culminates into one the greatest chases on the silver screen where the group during their escape rides through an entire building on horseback.Many called it the most violent movie to date until Scarface hit the screen starring Al Pacino. Yet the idea of a free nation in the west by hand gun and pure grit tells it as more poetic for the fallen south. Many who knew Jesse James, thought of him as a hero than a killer except the tale in this film says he was shot by two gunman in his home. Others say he escaped to Mexico or was seen in another part of the country. His death albeit mysterious remains debatable. As for the other part of the clan they lived out their lives in prison as it was told in the history books.The long riders will remain as one of the best told stories about the younger gang, and how their lives changed the way the law oversees its citizens when it comes to pure determination, fortitude, and audacity. Not all live by the law, but when it comes down to family, there is no law in existence that can change the heart of those who remain faithful to one another. Highly recommended to those who love westerns.

I love how the makers of this movie use sets of 'American brothers in real life' to depict sets of 'American brothers in real-old American history!'David, Keith, and, Robert Carradine portray the Younger Brothers; James and Stacy Keach portray the James Brothers; Dennis and Randy Quaid portray the Miller Brothers; and, Christopher and Nicholas Guest portray the Ford Brothers - great casting!This is an excellent movie from start to finish! The acting is excellent...as is the direction; the music; the sets; the settings and scenery; the costumes; etc., and, especially the action - the action is exemplary!"The Long Riders" is directed by Walter Hill ("The Warriors"), who is a protégé of the exUS Marine "Master Director" of movie-war, -battle, and, -violence...Sam Peckinpah; and, he obviously learned a lot!This is a great movie if you're into extreme and realistic westerns such as "The Wild Bunch" and, "Tombstone."I highly recommend this movie to those whom are! :)

The American West has provided an endless amount of true-life stories that have become legends of our nation's history. Inevitably, of course, this means that men that are branded as "outlaws" have become a part of all that. One such gang of outlaws was the one led by Frank and Jesse James that terrorized a large chunk of the Midwest in the years following the Civil War, and right up to the first years of the 20th century. That legend, unsurprisingly, has seen its share of films being made by Hollywood. But perhaps the most provocative of the bunch is the one made by action film stalwart Walter Hill at the turn of the 1980s. That film was THE LONG RIDERS.This take on the venerable outlaw legend is notable for having sets of brothers play the outlaws: Stacy and James Keach play the James Brothers'; the Carradines (Keith, Robert, David) are the Youngers; the Quaids (Dennis and Randy) play the Miller Brothers; and Christopher and Nicholas Guest portray the Fords. During the 1870s and 1880s, these men rack up a series of felonies so long and so brutal that they become oversized legends of their time, and quickly become the focus of the equally legendary Pinkerton detective agency (the frontier forerunner to the FBI). But the methods the Pinkertons use to hunt down the James/Younger boys are not only unconventional, but even criminal at times themselves, earning the scorn of a lot of people, especially those close to the boys in the states of Missouri and Tennessee. The end result is a blood-soaked affair that climaxes when the gang attempts to rob a bank in Northfield, Minnesota, in a raid that only nets them a lot of bloodshed since it was all set up by the Pinkertons and that the entire town was waiting for them. All three of the Youngers are so badly wounded that the Jameses abandon them. Those that are not wounded are eventually captured by the Pinkertons. Only the Fords were ever offered a deal: to turn state's evidence and track down the James Brothers, which they indeed took.Made on what was a fairly sizeable budget for a Western ($10 million), THE LONG RIDERS did, however, score quite well at the box office; and as a result, the film was perhaps the last great Western to be a hit before the monstrous critical and box office debacle of HEAVEN'S GATE came along at year's end in 1980, all but decimating the Western as a genre. Hill and his crew were sticklers for authenticity, and it shows in every frame of the film, with each set of acting brothers doing convincing turns as the outlaws, and with Pamela Reed giving a fine turn as soon-to-be-outlaw cowgirl Belle Starr, a loose associate of the James/Younger gang. Given the period in which it was made, no one should be surprised that the outlaws are seen as the heroes, and the Pinkertons as more or less the heavies (since their methods of hunting down the gang are terribly unethical at times). And since Hill wrote the screenplay for director Sam Peckinpah's 1972 crime thriller classic THE GETAWAY, and loosely studied under that director, no one should be shocked either that THE LONG RIDERS is a fairly violent film, with bloody shootouts rendered in slow-motion (though Hill's editing style is not as cascading, nor quite as memorable, as Peckinpah's was for, say, THE WILD BUNCH).Filmed primarily on locations in northern California, Texas, and Georgia, THE LONG RIDERS benefits greatly not only from its casting and its period authenticity, but also from the rustic, down-home country/folk music score by Americana legend Ry Cooder, who would work again with Hill on films like STREETS OF FIRE, SOUTHERN COMFORT, TRESPASS, JOHNNY HANDSOME, LAST MAN STANDING, and GERONIMO: AN American LEGEND. It is sad that the Western genre had basically entered its twilight by the time THE LONG RIDERS was released, and that HEAVEN'S GATE (released, ironically, by the same studio, United Artists) would all but bury it in the ground for a long time, because this film has a lot to recommend to it. It belongs squarely in the traditions that both Peckinpah and Sergio Leone set forth in the 1960s, that in which the demarcation between black and white was really quite gray, and where right and wrong were determined by the participants, and not a half-baked sense of morality. Hill, who can sometimes be an uneven director, nevertheless understood that better than most, which is a big reason THE LONG RIDERS is one of the best of the latter breed of that most distinctly American of film genres.