The Highwaymen, starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, is not a new movie and maybe you’ve seen it already. But if you haven’t, it’s worth watching. In my case, it was worth watching again. I’d seen it twice already when it popped up on the Netflix menu last night, and I watched it a third time. It was great. There have been a few movies and a lot written about Bonnie and Clyde; in my opinion, this movie stands way above the other stories.
The real Frank Hamer was a hell of a man (as was Maney Gault), although one of the earlier Bonnie and Clyde movies portrayed him as a bumbler and a buffoon. His widow sued Warner Brothers over that and the studio settled out of court. This movie sets that record straight.
The story is about two Texas Rangers (Frank Hamer and Maney Gault) coming out of retirement to track down and kill Bonnie and Clyde. I don’t know how close it adheres to what actually happened, but that doesn’t matter (at least to me). From what I’ve previously known and the research I did online, I think The Highwaymen stays pretty close to the truth. It’s a hell of a story and it’s extremely well done. It hits home for me, too. I’m an old guy and I can sympathize with the two geezers played well by Costner and Harrelson. Their aches and pains made me laugh. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a bad movie with Harrelson in it; I have seen one or two turkeys with Costner. But in this film both actors were superb (as was the writing) and I appreciated the attention to getting the firearm details right. There’s a gunstore scene that’s awesome. In one of the opening scenes, Hamer is shown to have a pet wild boar. I tried to find out if that was true and what popped up on Google was inconclusive. There are references to his having a pet javelina.
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Trust me on this: The Highwaymen is a wonderful flick. Watch it and you can thank me later.
Woody is great in everything !
Kostner in most things.
But anybody whom can blow warren Beaty away is my hero!
I may even watch this movie now. Thanks!
Have you ever read “The Postman”? I suggest you do if you haven’t. It’s a quick read but most thought provoking. I was working in Detroit, late 90’s, and needed a book to help pass the time. I picked it up in a junk store. My copy had a picture of Kevin Costner on the cover, apparently it is also a movie. I read the book… fantastic. Now I wanted to watch the movie but movie reviews had called it “the worst movie of the year”. But how could that be? Simply follow the story line from the book and the producers, and Costner, will be carrying home Oscar trophies by the truck load! Nah… Costner and team figured out a way to screw it up. The beauty thing here is, if you saw the movie it’s not too late to read the book because the two have nothing to do with each other outside of the premise that WW3 has happened. Also of note, I loved Tom Petty, he was great in concert but he was a terrible actor, but not much worse than Costner in this one. Dang it, I should have said “spoiler alert”. Nah, it doesn’t matter.
Thanks, Marcus. I will look for it.
Ok. The book is fun, exciting and a very interesting take on life post catastrophic war. I have no idea how Kevin Costner screwed it up but he surely did.
The movie is a poor version of the Postman , leaves out more than it includes.
I agree. The opening scene with the lion was cool then the movie fell off a cliff. Costner completely missed the point of the book.
You never really get history from a Hollywood movie. There’s too much demand for drama and easy plot devices. Sometimes history isn’t entertaining.
I’ll never forgive Ron Howard for making Max Baer an evil monster in the slanderous movie Cinderella Man.
Joe, I watched the movie last night. It is excellent !
Thanks for the tip !
The Highwaymen is a marvelous movie. I rewatched it about 2 weeks ago, it came up on my Netflix suggested movies and I watched it again, marvelous. The thing that stuck me with a movie is that the old time Texas Rangers were just bad MF’s and you really didn’t want to mess with him and that real friendship lasts forever.
Agree with everything you said, Terry.
Great review! I’ve watched ‘The Highwaymen’ but now I’m going to watch it again.
My current favorite book is the non-fiction Nomadland by Jessica Bruder. Frances McDormand did a cool movie about it (where 95% of the folks onscreen play themselves – you can find it on Hulu) but the book is 10 times the film. So much to think about. So many cautionary tales. I highly recommend it.
Also, on every Exhaust Notes post I spend at least 3 minutes clicking on all the ads in my little effort to keep you two out of Nomadland.
And we greatly appreciate it, Ren! Thanks!
I’ll look for and watch Nomadland.
Thanks again.