This was a great film written by the famous writer William Faulkner dealing with an old man going back to his youth sixty years ago. Steve McQueen, (Boon Hogganbeck) along with a few of his friends decided to take a trip from Mississippi to Memphis in an old time car which was relatively new during this period of time and taking along a very young boy named Lucius, (Mitch Vogel). Boon takes Lucius into a brothel where he stays over night in Memphis and learns a great deal about the birds and the bees and especially from a sweet kind lady named Carrie, (Sharon Farrell) who is a gal very much in love with Boon. There is a horse race and lots of laughs and drama to go along with the rest of the picture. There was a great deal of problems between the director of this film Mark Rydell and Steve McQueen, but the film was finally completed but the producer would never direct another picture with McQueen.

... I was a Jr. at BYU when "The Reivers" was 1st. released in '69. Watching it today (March 30, 2008!?!), the film STILL-holds-up!?! One of Steve McQueen's most charming roles.As a Broadcast Journalist grad, who spent the next 35+ yrs. in the mainstream-&-gay media on both coasts, I'd work 17-yrs. for "Billboard Magazine" in Vegas, L.A. & the Bflo./Rochester, N.Y. markets.... Was a fan of the late movie composer Jerry Goldsmith (since "A Patch of Blue" in '66), later interviewing him. John Williams, who wrote-this-score, was a close 2nd.& Burgess Meredith as narrator, was PERFECT!?! A CLASSIC!!! Don't MISS this!!!

Steve McQueen stars as a nice jerk in Northern Mississippi in 1905. However, the focus of the film really is on young Mitch Vogel and is about his initiation into the sluttier side of life. Odd that despite his prominence in the film he received such low billing. This is a coming of age story about the South from William Faulkner and while in many ways it is a family film, the themes that appear in it make it far from family-friendly. This is certainly not a Disney flick! Now for older kids, it's probably okay but with the sexual content, whore house setting and morally shaky lead characters, it's a bit problematic for the younger crowd.Now if you ignore all the debauchery in this film and the cliché about "hookers with hearts of gold", then it is an excellent character study and does have some lovely performances and is finely crafted--just don't let your kids internalize the messages or you'll be sorry!

This is an enjoyable old fashion type of adventure they just wont make anymore outside of a Disney adaptation. It's based on a William Faulkner story, his last I believe, and may be slightly autobiographical. I always saw this movie on television in the 70s & 80s and didn't realize so much of the film was cut and watered down for TV. The video VHS/ or DVD is much more complete and has more uncensored dialogue as well as including excised TV scenes such as when the trio arrives at the 'bordello' and Lucius is introduced. While the movie takes on a Disney or Hallmark heritage type of look it is not that. It is much more mature with spicy dialogue as mentioned and mature scenes that round out a longer running time. One thing I noticed is that this movie hails from 1969 when certain sexual situations were now being allowed in American productions. This movie reflects this change, while being basically family fare it 'just' escaped an R rating presumably as the MPAA system was still new and unfamiliar with how to rate certain subject matter. If this movie had been made just four or five years before it no doubt would have captured the rural early 20th century innocence familiar to Faulkner but the sexual situations, which make the story more believable, wouldn't have been included. Alas this is a great movie to have in your collection to take out and view when you're lonely and want something to look at or if it's raining outside. ***1/2 stars and it deserves to be much more well known than it is.