I always found this movie not satisfactory and could never put my finger on it. Watching it again, for something like the third time, it hit me - it doesn't feel like a proper movie, it's more like an album, a collection of various "tracks". Vignettes that are cobbled together.
There is no one over-riding story, really, it's a series of incidents. There are thematic links of course - it's the tale of the Jesse James gang, and the device of having brothers play brothers works wonderfully - but there isn't momentum.
Much of it is repetitive - a robbery, David Carradine calls Pamela Reed a whore, a person is killed because they know the Jameses, another robbery, David Carradine calls Pamela Reed a whore again, another person is killed because they know the Jameses. You get the feeling scenes could have been rearranged or even taken out and you wouldn't have noticed.
Too many of the scenes aren't particularly memorable. Too many characters are similar - Randy Quaid and Robert Carradine both explain they got into robbing "just because"; Keith Carradine's woman and James Keach's woman both seem to be the same winsome thing. There's too much bullets hitting bodies in slow motion.
But some of it is outstanding - Ry Cooder's musical score, the production detail. There are excellent performances from Stacy Keach, David Carradine, Keith Carradine and James Whitmore Jnr. I found James Keach's Jesse James a little unsettling at first but then got into it. Fine acting from all involved, down to the little roles eg Dennis Quaid, James Remar,
Many of the scenes I remember as well - James Whitmore Jnr's exasperation at not getting the gang, James and Frank crossing the river after the Northfield Minnesota Raid, the final moments between Frank and the Pinkerton, Pamela Reed hopping out of the bath. There is some good album.
Lots of people love this movie. I admire it. But feel it should've been a mini series.
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