Customer Reviews

Jayhawkers [VHS]

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This is a hard film to review. It's a pretty good movie, a good western... but as a film about the Jayhawkers in 1850's Kansas it's so wildly inaccurate and far from any resemblance to history that it almost defies belief.

Fess Parker is good as the brooding, undecided not-quite-outlaw, and the rest of the cast is fine as well. The moral ambiguity is well done too. It's just the scenario that's the problem. This stuff just didn't happen, and in places that didn't exist.

They have Fess Parker's character having been settled in Kansas before the Mexican War when Kansas wasn't really opened to settlement until years after. Then they have the army fighting the Jayhawkers for control of the kingdom of Kansas (which has a lot of astonishingly large, well-built towns in it). The Jayhawkers are a para-military band whose raids--in this movie--are entirely in Kansas, against Kansans. Missouri, which was the real target of the real Jayhawkers gets one token mention, then we're back to raids in Kansas. The real Jayhawkers were horsethieves who raided into Missouri, occassionally kidnapping a slave so they could claim to be abolitionists (to be fair, a few were genuine abolitionists). The movie's Jayhawkers wore "Redlegs" leggings but no mention of Jennison is made. There's also not a single African-American in the entire movie though there's a brief mention of--I think they called them--"Missouri Redlegs" killing a lady's husband after asking his opinion of slavery.

It's bizarre. It's like they had the script for a stock western then went through and inserted a few pre-Civil War Kansas-Missouri border war phrases without bothering to find out anything about them. The women's costumes were decidedly not 1850s--looked more like generic 1870's-80's Hollywood western outfits. And the weapons... I'm not an expert on 1850's weapons but it struck me as more than passingly odd that everyone had such very fine repeating rifles. Oh, and a big chunk of the plot relied on the very extensive railroad that existed in this universe's 1850's Kansas.

As a nice old western, this is a fine little adventure movie. The video was crisp and the colors bright. Good action. As an historically based movie... no.

This is an odd little Western set in the 1850s, with Jeff Chandler and Fess Parker on opposite sides of the law. Chandler, as Luke Darcy, plays a very noble yet misguided self-appointed leader of a band of outlaws bent on seeing his vision of society's mores come to fruition. Chandler brings integrity and determination to his role. Parker is always good in his homespun way. Henry Silva is also on hand demonstrating his wry presence. The film's greatest asset (and probably why I always liked this film) is its score by Jerome Moross, best known for "The Big Country." If you listen close you can hear strains of his theme for the TV show "Wagon Train." The VHS color print is vivid.

The Jayhawkers is a perfect example of good entertainment that isn't necessarily factual. Lots of liberties are taken with truth about the Jayhawkers, their location, and activities.

The important thing is that the movie, starring Fess Parker (of Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett fame) and Jeff Chandler is exciting, entertaining and fun to watch. Parker plays an ex-con who is forced to infiltrate the Jayhawkers, led by Chandler.

Don't watch movies for historical accuracy. Watch them because they're fun!

I agree with the comments about history in the other reviews. But then, I've always had a problem with people who get their history from movies. Movies aren't about history!

What I do appreciate about this movie is what I have always appreciated about traditional "westerns". They do NOT reflect history. They do (the good ones do) deal with morality and social ethics. The "demythologizing" of the westerns have taken away one movie vehicle for actually talking about what's "right" and what's "wrong."

(The one glaring "sin" of westerns was the disquieting and frequently disgusting treatment of Native Americans. But I would have preferred addressing that sin rather than throwing westerns out the window)

In this movie, the question of friendship is explored. And also the question of revenge. Worthy issues. And here they are powerfully explored within the context of a well made movie. And some great music!!

I would hope that "The Jayhawkers" makes it to DVD.