| The Long Riders (1980) Cast:David Carradine, Keith Carradine, Robert Carradine, Stacey Keach, James Keach, Nicholas Guest, Christopher Guest,Randy Quaid, Dennis Quaid, James Remar Four sets of real life brothers play The James and Younger gang who leave quite a legacy in the south, while they rob banks and run from the law in this enjoyable if somewhat unsucessful film which has a good cast but suffers from the big cast problem, there's not enough room in the script to develop any of the characters. A good western needs lots of action and The Long Riders has this, however a great western needs a human dimension and this The Long Riders doesn't have, there's too many characters surfacing in the story and Hill doesn't know how to tie them together to make a great western that gets us all involved. He does give us lots of action and the actionscene with the Carradines, Quaids and Keachs raiding Northfield is indeed an intense action sequence and therefore the movie comes alive. The Long Riders is certainly a decent movie but when we are dealing with one of the greatest talents of action filmmaking this just doesn't gel as well as it would've from somebody else. Although Walter Hill manages to keep the pace tight, the action spectactular and provide some welcome comic relief. Also it remains superior to everything Hill made after 1989.D.Walter Hill*** |