At 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 7, 1876, eight members of the infamous James-Younger Gang attempted to rob the First National Bank in Northfield, Minnesota. The local citizenry got wind of the robbery while it was in progress and a fierce shoot-out erupted outside the bank. Two members of the gang—Clell Miller and Bill Chadwell—were killed and Jim and Bob Younger wounded (and later captured, along with brother Cole, the ringleader). A bank employee and a bystander were killed and another bank employee wounded. Frank and Jesse James managed to escape back to Tennessee but, after five years in operation, the James-Younger Gang ceased to exist: an outcome still celebrated in Northfield annually. 104 years after the bungled robbery writer-director Philip Kaufman brought out a film version of the famous raid that is not strictly accurate historically but entirely consistent with the anti-authority zeitgeist of the early Seventies. Paul Frees' sonorous opening voice-over sets the tone: "Even before the wounds of the Civil War had healed in Missouri, the railroads came swarming in to steal the land. Everywhere, men from the railroads were driving poor, defenseless families from their homes. And that's when a fresh wind suddenly began to blow. It was other Clay County farmers, the James and Younger boys, coming to the rescue. They tarred and feathered the railroad men and drove them from the land. From that moment onward, they were outlaws. But the people of Missouri would never forget what the boys had done for them." The laughable notion that Jesse James was a modern Robin Hood originated with James himself, an early adept at public relations, who characterized himself and his cohorts as aggrieved victims of a Radical Republican administration bent on unending persecution of those who had sided with the defeated Confederacy. The newspapers ratified Jesse James's version of himself, which soon passed into enduring myth. In reality James was apolitical and a criminal psychopath to boot. Also worth noting is the fact that the James-Younger gang mostly robbed banks; railroads were only an occasional target of opportunity. Kaufman's film correctly characterizes Jesse James (Robert Duvall) as mean and unstable and Cole Younger (Cliff Robertson) as the real brains of the outfit. Where the film most egregiously errs is in depicting the Northfield raid in Keystone Cops fashion and in characterizing the gang's victims and foes as generally corrupt, cruel, incompetent or cowardly. The outlaws look good by comparison and their enemies get to stand in for an emerging, oppressive corporate establishment (cf. 'Bonnie & Clyde' and 'The Wild Bunch'). VHS (1992) and DVD (2007).

Writer/director Phillip Kaufman eschews the well-documented facts of the famous ambitious (and ultimately botched) robbery in the name of bold and downright irreverent revisionism that offers a pointed satirical critique of the new "civilization" that was coming into being at the end of the 19th century (for example, the mob of angry townspeople who go after the gang in the wake of the robbery prove to be more crazed and dangerous than said gang!). It's Kaufman's fiercely biting dry wit that gives this film an extra tangy flavor, along with the sharp cinematography by Bruce Surtees, David Grusin's jubilant and harmonic score, and the splendidly sonorous narration by the ubiquitous Paul Frees. Cliff Robertson gives an excellent and engaging performance as the shrewd and amiable Cole Younger while Robert Duvall breathes hell-raising fire as an extremely ornery Jesses James. The stellar supporting cast of familiar character faces keeps the movie buzzing: Luke Askew as the stoic and laconic Jim Younger, R.G. Armstrong as the crusty Chet Miller, Dana Elcar as the jolly Allen, Donald Moffat as the sarcastic Manning, Matt Clark as the antsy Bob Younger, Elisha Cook Jr. as the weaselly Bunker, and, in an especially tragic small part, Royal Dano as loony old coot Gustavson. Moreover, the quirky array of colorful characters are lots of fun to watch, the titular caper is both tense and thrilling, and the vivid evocation of the period seems authentic (if not entirely accurate). Recommended viewing.

It's a strange mixture of comedy and dramatic action, cheerfully ripping off two wildly successful movies of a few years earlier, "The Wild Bunch" and "Bonnie and Clyde." Pekinpah's influence is much in evidence in the editing, since there are many brief shots of the faces of participants laughing pointlessly or gaping in shock. No slow motion, though. It's hard to imagine how director Kaufman missed that stylish trait. The long, retrograde title brings to mind several lavish flicks of the 60s -- "The Great Race," "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines," which may in turn have been influenced by Tom Wolfe.Cliff Robertson, in a typically restrained but effective performance, is Cole Younger, the outlaw who leads a dozen others in a raid on the bank at Northfield, Minnesota, the kind of place we don't normally associate with the outlawism of the Old West.Actually, he's kind of a co-leader of the gang, the less reckless and less bloodthirsty one. His partner is Robert Duvall as Jesse James. Jesse doesn't mind slinging lead around because, in addition to stealing money, he wants to demonstrate that "the war is still going on." Kids, that war is what we call "the American Civil War." It was fought between the Northern and Southern states in the early 1860s. That's "1860s AD". The "AD" stands for "anno domini." That's Latin and it means "in the year of our Lord." Jesse James is talking about "the American Civil War." Jesse fought for the South and, like a few others, turned outlaw when the formal conflict ended. PS: The South lost.Most of the gang have nothing but contempt for the good folk of Minnesota they are about to rob of all their money. Ain't nothing' up there but Squareheads anyhow. Squareheads are most Scandinavians like Swedes and Norwegians but can include Germans and Poles too. The outlaws can't tell the difference. Kielbasi and knockwurst become jokes at the dinner table.When they reach Northfield and begin to case the joint, they are introduced to the game of baseball. They've never heard of it. "Yep, it's our National Sport!", one Squarehead brags. The baseball scene is played for laughs but, to tell the truth, it's a bit extended. After a while it no longer seems so funny when the ball lands in a cow flop or a brawl breaks out. I, for one, was happy when Cole Younger finally shoots the ball into sawdust while it's in mid air.Finally we get to the robbery itself, which takes place in rain and mud, not the dusty and sun-baked little towns we usually think of. (It was shot in Oregon, where it rains a lot.) Murphy's Law applies. "If something can go wrong, it will." The townspeople are as ready to shoot as the bandits are and all hell breaks loose. Cole Younger winds up with some 28 bullets in his body but manages to live out the rest of his life in prison, dying only in 1916.I found it kind of entertaining. The baseball scenes do have some laughs after all. And Cole Younger is as amusing as Jesse James is chilling. Not that Younger actively tries to be funny. It's just that his character has some engaging quirks and some good lines. I also thought it might be, well, instructive for younger viewers, the kind who have little history and less general knowledge, the kind who think that baseball and pipe organs, like tooth decay, have always been with us, maybe invented by cave men.

In this film the real brain of Jesse James's gang is Cole Younger(Clff Robertson). Jesse(Robert Duvall) is a very mean guy, who does not care much for women and his brother Frank is just his yes man. Robertson is excellent as Cole Younger, he looks like a heavy man, which Cole really was, he is intelligent and human. When he hears that amnesty was given to the gang, he goes to Northfield to stop Jesse from robbing the bank, but on the way he learns that it was denied, so he decides to go along with the raid. When he learns that there is almost no money in the bank because people would rather keep it at home, he conceives a plan with the bank's owner for everybody to get scared and make deposits. There is a quite comical baseball game between St Paul and Northfield where Younger meets the town's most important persons. This version of the James and Younger's story seems to be very far from what really happened, but I enjoyed every minute of it.