Directed by:
John Lee HancockScreenplay:
John FuscoCinematography:
John SchwartzmanComposer:
Thomas NewmanCast:
Kevin Costner, Woody Harrelson, Kathy Bates, Kim Dickens, John Carroll Lynch, W. Earl Brown, Thomas Mann, David Furr, William Sadler, Jesse C. Boyd (more)VOD (1)
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Kevin Costner plays legendary lawman Frank Hamer and Woody Harrelson will play his long-suffering sidekick Manny Gault. Though both men were out of the Rangers by the time Bonnie & Clyde started their robbery reign, they were commissioned as special investigators, coaxed back by a consortium of banks to assemble a posse and end the robbery spree of the notorious gang reputed to have killed 13 cops - and others. The Highwaymen takes the vantage point of the formidable posse headed by Hamer, an old style Texas Ranger who’d survived 100 gunfights and killed 53 people. (South by Southwest Film Festival)
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Reviews (9)
Netflix once again stumbled upon a good director and a solid premise. Add in the superb acting performance by Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson and you will think that a quality viewing experience is guaranteed. Too bad that given its two-and-a-half-hour running time, the film is very slow-paced, which in the second half of the movie becomes quite a hindrance. Anyhow, the premise is great. I liked it. It’s definitely worth watching. Several scenes are really wonderful, but cutting it short by an hour wouldn’t hurt.
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Classic storytelling, a captivating visual aspect and precise acting performances. Pot-bellied Costner is an uncompromising tough guy and Harrelson delivers the necessary human dimension, where his story just before the end works much better than the climax, when they shoot Bonnie and Clyde full of holes. Hancock smuggled into the picture a dig at the current state of affairs, where the masses and the media deserve nothing but contempt. The slow tempo with emphasis on depicting the characters works excellently and Newman’s music is very nostalgic. This type of picture is woefully lacking at movie theaters, like meat in a veggie burger.
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This was so terribly ordinary, I'd be hard pressed to find a more mediocre film. Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson play two retired rangers who are called in to catch criminals who go around killing people on sight. The problem is that we don't get any info about the two protagonists or their background, so we as viewers can't build any kind of relationship with them, and we don't get any scraps of information about the two bad guys anyway; we don't even see them on screen until the end, so we don't really know who they are. The result is a two-hour wandering from place to place and just riding on inertia until the end, which can't even be called a finale, because nothing happens there either. And so I ask, what was the film supposed to give us? Visually and technically, it is "okay" and the acting is also okay (although frankly neither Costner nor Harrelson have much work with, as apart from their occasional dialogues and cold faces we get almost nothing), but the script is just incredibly dry and punishingly empty. Very poor.
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After Triple Frontier, Netflix pulls another ace from its sleeve, a macho western/gangster flick set in the 1930s, where the excellent Texas Ranger duo of Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson are hot on the heels of the legendary Bonnie and Clyde. John Lee Hancock perfectly captures the feel of 1930's American South (the costumes, the cars and the guns a thing of beauty) and it's safe to say he gave the two stars a chance for a solid comeback, as they both do an excellent job. In terms of direction, acting, visuals and atmosphere, the film is flawless, the only issue may be the slower pace, but I had a decent time throughout. The highlights are definitely Costner purchasing a gun, Woody's solo in the bathroom, the bandit story and the final carnage. "Clyde might be the king, but I am a Texas Ranger! You little shit!" 80%
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I love these films - quiet slow melancholy, nostalgic reminiscing about the old days, and the sympathetic main characters and their interesting story. Everyone knows or guesses how it turns out, but it's not about the destination here - it's about the journey. The Highwaymen is, in short, a great “modern" western about two retired cowboys and their (last?) chore, and Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson literally shine in it (a big thanks to anyone who thought of putting these two together). The film keeps its distance from Bonnie and Clyde, but it's only to the benefit of the cause - they don't put as much attention on each other and act as a creeping, uncalculated evil (the closest we get to them is when Hamer and Gault get to them, but that's too late, of course), dangerous because of what they've already done and what they can do, and what celebrities they've become. There are a lot of question marks and exclamation marks throughout the clear and familiar story that still apply, and I get the impression that this is not only the best Netflix film I've seen so far, but one of the best films ever. I could watch the scene with Clyde's father over and over.
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