The Long Riders

R

1980

1 hr. 40 min.

Western

Biography

List

81%

27 Reviews

Tomatometer

73%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

During a bank robbery by the legendary James-Younger Gang, Ed Miller (Dennis Quaid) impulsively kills a man, much to the displeasure of leader Jesse James (James Keach), who insists that the gang scatter until the heat is off. The groups of brothers go their separate ways, with Cole Younger (David Carradine) considering settling down with his feisty girlfriend, Belle Starr (Pamela Reed). But they soon regroup for an ill-fated bank job in Northfield, Minn., that results in an epic chase.

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Critics Consensus

With its pared down storytelling, The Long Riders delivers with an evocative atmosphere and artful brutality.

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John H

Very good fairly accurate telling on the James Younger Gang. Good story and acting plus stylized action

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/24

Full Review

Stephen C

Walter Hills fantastic Western is on a par with Sam Peckinpah and the casting is perfect. The film was probably missed in the rush to pound Heaven's gate . And United Artists were pretty much dead in the water meaning other films like this Cutters Way and The Dogs of War escaped rather than being released Apart from that the film delivers and the final raid on the bank is up there with anything Peckinpah shot

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Good western with a lot of foul language in it so be careful, James Welch, Henderson, Arkansas, July 1, 2023

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

07/02/23

Full Review

Federico T

If you're looking for a masterfully directed western that's perfectly balanced between environmental authenticity and elegiac characters' strenght and charisma, this is the movie for you. Rounded in family bonds' fundamental purposes and inescapable backlashes, vendetta's harsh violence and the depiction of a soon to collapse self-regulated and self-segregated provincial world on the outskirts of the modern american society ambition that the Civil War aftermath was going to digest and offer to a yet fragmented country, Walter Hill forges an intense and peculiar movie that loves to the bone the western aestethics but also places itself in an unusual midwestern setting. Everything in this plot progresses utterly epic still remaining realistic, somewhat stiff and composed, as passages of a ritual, to elevate gestures and significant moments, stages of a timetable that from the legendary deeds and renegade conduct of the James-Younger gang end in the downward spiral of these hopeless men that just won't fit at all with the expectations of their country to be. The family element is crucial to underline dramatically the emotions that are in the game but also to gain that kind of credibility to make the numerous cast gel (built upon groups of real brothers actors). The search of an authentic environment is the key to the entire operation, affecting everything from the locations, the historically accurate soundtrack by Ry Cooder, till the toned down, even darkened, film foil.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

05/05/23

Full Review

Steve D

Far too simplistic to work.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/13/23

Full Review

Nothing Butt A

One of the best westerns ever filmed

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/06/23

Full Review

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Walter Hill

Director

David Carradine

Cole Younger

Keith Carradine

Jim Younger

Robert Carradine

Bob Younger

James Keach

Jesse James

Stacy Keach

Frank James

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57%

54%

Heaven's Gate

46%

27%

Wild Bill

71%

70%

Tom Horn

73%

75%

Rob Roy

93%

83%

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Richard Schickel

TIME Magazine

Hill is very much in the American grain, the inheritor of the Ford-Hawks-Walsh tradition of artful, understated action film making.

Oct 7, 2011

Full Review

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Walter Hill's first outright failure.

Feb 5, 2008

Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

What's ultimately missing is a definable point of view which would tie together the myriad events on display and fill in the blanks which Hill has imposed on the action by sapping it of emotional or historical meaning.

Feb 5, 2008

Full Review

Mitchell Beaupre

Paste Magazine

Strips away a lot of the steely gazes and taciturn men from Hill's first few pictures and gives us richly detailed interpersonal dynamics in the James-Younger gang and the men and women circling around them.

Rated: 7.5/10

Sep 29, 2023

Full Review

Roger Moore

Movie Nation

The story of the James-Younger Gang told in stately, sweeping vistas, star charisma, cold-blooded stares and bursts of epic Peckinpah violence.

Rated: 4/4

Nov 14, 2021

Full Review

Stephen Farber

New West/California

The Long Riders is exceptionally well made, but I came out feeling that there was no pressing reason to make it at all.

Nov 3, 2021

Full Review

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Synopsis

During a bank robbery by the legendary James-Younger Gang, Ed Miller (Dennis Quaid) impulsively kills a man, much to the displeasure of leader Jesse James (James Keach), who insists that the gang scatter until the heat is off. The groups of brothers go their separate ways, with Cole Younger (David Carradine) considering settling down with his feisty girlfriend, Belle Starr (Pamela Reed). But they soon regroup for an ill-fated bank job in Northfield, Minn., that results in an epic chase.

Director: Walter Hill
Executive Producer: Stacy Keach, James Keach
Screenwriter: Bill Bryden, Steven Smith, James Keach, Stacy Keach
Production Co: Huka Productions, United Artists
Rating: R
Genre: Western, Biography
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 30, 2016

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