Customer Reviews

The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Philip Kaufman's version of the last days of the Younger Brothers was made a bit before Walter Hill's "The Long Riders," and it suffers from being hyped as a serious action film when it is, in fact, a black comedy. Robert Duvall's Jesse James is so deliciously over-the-top in his self-righteousness and his faux-piety that he tends to obscure Cliff Robertson's turn as the bemused rationalist Cole Younger who finds too much of life "a wonderment," while Jesse just shoots at it and runs.
If Hill's film is about family and ties of blood, Kaufman's film is about greed and double-dealing raised to an art form. Everyone, except pious, mad Jesse is for sale in Kaufman's world. The Missouri state legislature can be bribed by the railroad to cancel an amnesty bill. Cole Younger plots with a venal banker to con the "good people" of Northfield, Minnesota out of their savings, then plans to rob the banker. The citizens of Northfield think nothing of cheating like mad to defeat a visiting baseball team from St. Paul and form the ultimate "shoot first" posse once the James and Younger gang presumes to raid their town. Northfield is the sort of civilized place where it's O.K. to pelt a madman with stones, but definitely bad form to shoot him. When the Missouri boys take on this group of respectable Northern burgers they take on much more than they bargained for.

I love this little known and mostly forgotten gem of a western that takes a genre and a myth and plays with all the quirky elements. No movie can reproduce historical fact -- not even a documentary. I love the feel of the film and the rough around the edges style. It's like life -- sometimes funny and sometimes violent. This is a very American film about legendary characters who in life had already become somewhat mythic. And that's what this exceptional film is about. Recommended.

"The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid" is one of the best crafted and excellently acted films you will ever see. It is such a shame that this truly great film is so little known. This, basically, is the original "telling" of the "Long Riders" without all the "polish" of hollywood...and that is just fine for this story, which, of course, actually DID happen. A little grittier than "The Long Riders", and that TOO is also in keeping...this, after all, is NOT a pretty story, so WHY doctor it up??? Robertson and Duvall turn in two knockout performances. Supporting cast is also FINE. Cinematography is simply fabulous. This one sticks in my mind, as does "Once Upon a Time in the West", "The Grey Fox", and "The Unforgiven"....check it out and see what I mean...you will not be sorry, it's top notch true story-telling, sadly "unknown".

"Ain't it a wonderment?" Phil Kaufman uses the framework of the James/Younger Gang's disasterous raid at Northfield Minnesota to create a unique and witty revisionist Western. Full of nice touches like an early, rough & tumble baseball game in a cow pasture, steam caliopes & tractors, and other period details. Wry humor in the hypocrisy of the banker & townsfolk, and in Robert Duvall's self-righteous, manipulative, psychopathic Jesse James and Cliff Robertson's laconic, intelligent, reflective Cole Younger. Well cast in all departments, nicely photographed in the gritty, wet, McCabe & Mrs. Miller fashion, with a similar slant on history. No idea why Maltin was muddled.

This is a really gritty western in the film period of The Wild Bunch and McCabe and Mrs. Miller. And what is probably a fairly accurate reenactment of the failed final bank job of the Younger-James Gang. Great characterizations of these outlaws, with Cliff Robertson as probably the toughest outlaw who ever lived. Cole Younger was allegedly shot 23+ times with heary caliber firearms and survived to a ripe age. Great entertainment, but not for the whole family.

Cliff Robertson is charming and charismatic as the outlaw Cole Younger and Robert Duval is menacing and more than a little scary as his comrade Jesse James in this film which purports to tell the story of the real-life attempted robbery of a bank in Northfield, Minnesota. The plot deviates sharply from some of the historical facts, but the greatest historical "sin" of the movie is the way in which it presents the townspeople of Minnesota, showing corruption, cowardice, and incompetence where, in fact, a group of ordinary people stood up to the most notorious outlaw gang in the West and basically shot them to pieces. This film in its strongly anti-Establishment thrust is certainly a product of its times, enoyable to watch but not history.

Now that Warner Brothers has recently given us "Fort Apache" and "Ballad of Cable Hogue" on dvd, we have only about 8 "necessary" westerns that beg to be released in the dvd format. These are "The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid", "The Gunfighter", "There Was a Crooked Man", "The Gray Fox", "Jesse James", "The Return of Frank James", "The Sundowners", and "The Culpepper Cattle Company".

"The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid" is one of the best crafted and excellently acted films you will ever see. It is such a shame that this truly great film is so little known. Robertson and Duvall turn in two knockout performances. Cinematography is simply fabulous. If you have a chance to see this, even on tape, do so. You will be very glad that you did. This film, along with the other seven above desperately need to be digitized and put on dvd--both for our enjoyment and their preservation. Perhaps a letter-writing campaign to Amazon.com requesting these titles might get the attention of the people who are the caretakers of these historic movies, and move them to restore and release them on dvd for us and for future generations.

This film is more of a farce than a depiction of the real James gang. It focuses on Cole Younger, but Jesse, Frank, and many of the other members of the James gang appear, although Jesse is not shown as the gang leader. All of the gang members look, act, and speak like country bumpkins. They act foolishly, rely on visions and superstitions, and seek medical help from witches. One of the gang has such bad teeth that he covers the bottom of his face with a scarf or an oversized fake mustache.

It is 1876, the Missouri legislature overwhelmingly wants to vote to pardon the James gang, but the private detective Pinkerton bribes the Speaker of the House to rule the vote out of order, and he does so. Distraught, Jesse and some of the gang decide to ride some 400 miles to Northfield, Minnesota to rob the largest bank east of the Mississippi. At the same time, independently, Cole Younger has a vision to do the same robbery.

Cole tricks the bank manager to persuade all the town people to put all of their gold in the bank vault. He plans to rob the vault after it is filled. While in Northfield, Cole watches an early version of a baseball game in a manure-filled field, and the film shows how ridiculously the game was played at that time.

Jesse and the other members arrive in town and the two groups join to rob the bank. Viewers will find it interesting to see how the gang muddled the robbery and how Cole is captured. He was shot a total of 26 times, spent a long time in jail, and died in 1916.

A good account of the James gang. I feel it was well researched, a well written script, and good acting.

I remember this movie when a young man. I remember it mostly because I saw it being filmed in Jacksonville, Oregon. While not a great movie, it's very watchable, especially if you are a western fan. Highly recommend.