Posted on 04/03/2019 2:36:52 PM PDT by Rummyfan
The Highwaymen, Netflixs new manhunt film starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, is a suspenseful and morally fraught take on the story of the exTexas Rangers who tracked down the most famous bank robbers of 1934. But this movie about chasing Bonnie and Clyde is also a movie about Bonnie and Clyde. Its a pleasing tale of resourceful, hard-nosed cops thats also something of an essay on cinema and society.
Arthur Penns 1967 cinematic landmark (which is also streaming on Netflix) launched an American New Wave of counterculture films about anti-heroes and misfits contesting a nefarious system. Penns successors painted a bleak leftist vision of America as a land of beautiful eccentrics destroyed by materialism, militarism, greed, conformity, and corruption. Exactly two decades after Bonnie and Clyde, though, Costner became a star in The Untouchables, which heralded a Reaganite restoration in which movies celebrated lawmen and the military as the good guys who brought order to chaotic times.
Retelling Bonnie and Clyde from the point of view of the actual heroes of the story is a superb idea that took far too long to come to screen. Hired by the governor of Texas, Ma Ferguson (Kathy Bates), aging ex-Rangers Frank Hamer (Costner) and Maney Gault (Harrelson) are given a special mandate to end a reign of terror that left 13 people dead, yet was celebrated as a romantic tale of sexy desperadoes who were folk heroes to the newspapers of the Great Depression and later easily adapted into symbols of Sixties liberation.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Frank Hamer is a legend and probably should be even more of one. He is also the man who caught Lyndon Johnson red handed stealing his first senate election.
The family of Hamer successfully sued the makers of the Faye Dunnaway/Warren Beaty film. I think the amount of the settlement was never disclosed.
Few a accurate parts , but enjoyed the movie.
The book is an accurate story of Ranger Hamer’s life.
I really enjoyed it. Decide for yourself. Acting was really good! Very well done flick in my opinion. Now I want to read more about this. I remember the film with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty which was so good. This is the other side, the Texas rangers who took them down. Interesting film I really liked!
My Father grew up in the same tiny town in the Florida Panhandle as Faye Dunnaway. Bascom is just a crossroads.
My BIL attended a couple of classes at Florida State with her.
“I swear that channel is programmed for 16 year old girls with cramps.”
I don’t read many things that really make me LOL, but that did.
Have already seen it multiple times:
1. Deep in the Depression the public reacted negatively to authority figures (banks, politicians, police) so its possible to see how B & C obtained the robinhood status.
2. Love the gun shop scene with Costner.
GOOD film!
“The Highwaymen” is a terrific movie that balances the cinematic scales with Arthur Penn’s celebrated 1967 classic, “Bonnie and Clyde.”
Heard a rebroadcast of a Jean Shepherd show from when "Bonnie and Clyde" was released in 1967.
Shep thought it was a horrendous romanticizing of pretty amoral gangsters.
He said he grew up in/near a town that some of Dillinger's gang bankrobbed.
They shot and killed the old unarmed bank guard, and for fun on the way out of town, called over a cop that was doing crossing guard duty for the local school, and shot and killed him.
It is not a mediocre film. It is beautifully written, produced and directed, and features outstanding performances by Costner and Harrelson.
My son gets an annual pass every year and goes 1 or 2 movies a week, said it is a really good movie.
They killed fourteen; nine of those were police officers. By the time they were gunned down by Ranger Frank Hamer’s posse, public opinion had turned against them.
Faye Dunaway & Warren Beatty they were not.
"I wish I knew how to quit you ..."
That said, this is a good movie. Not a lot of moral ambiguity or virtue signalling. No fags. No race crap. No enviro nutters.
The hunters make it pretty clear from the outset that they're not interested in bringing B&C in. They're going to kill them. Period.
Spoiler alert: they succeed. With the aid of some nice, old-school firepower.
The way justice should be done.
morally fraught
Verb
The drowmound was so hevy fraught / That unethe myght it saylen aught.
That verse, from the 14th-century poem “Richard Coer de Lion,” says that a large ship (a dromond) was so heavily loaded that it could barely sail. That’s the first instance we have on record of the adjective “fraught.”
The word came to Middle English from the Middle Dutch or Middle Low German noun vracht, which meant “load” and which is also the source of the word freight. Middle English also possessed a noun “fraught” that meant “load” and a verb “fraughten” that meant “to load” (meanings still retained in Scottish English by “fraught,” the verb and noun).
For centuries, “fraught” continued to be used only of loaded ships, but its use was eventually broadened.
Ok, the movie is loaded with morals. But what morals?
We saw it at a friend and thought it was good. I recommend it.
For later.
L
“Postman was actually pro-American and anti-dictator.”
I was ok with the movie but the book was a lot better. IIRC, the plots basically diverged after his delivery of the mail to the first city state.
I like post-apocalyptic novels/movies, though many new ones are anti-American and pro-dictator.
I thought it was a good movie. It focused on the efforts to kill them.
Not as good as a promo trailer but overall an enjoyable movie.
Same here. If you like post-apocalyptic movies, try Book of Eli with Denzel. It’s obvious what the “book” in the title is..
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