The Long Riders

When Bob Younger is thrown from his horse in Northfield, Minnesota, and in the next two shots of him as he struggles to his feet under fire, he is holding a revolver in each hand.

When the shot next cuts to him, he is frantically working and firing a Winchester 1866 (Yellow-boy) rifle.

Presumably this came from the boot in his horse's saddle, but he has had barely a second in which to retrieve it.

The revolver Frank James threatens Rixley with and carries throughout the movie is a Smith-Wesson Schofield.

In reality, Jesse carried a pair of Schofields while Frank preferred the heavier Remington New Army (the type of pistol shown carried by Cole Younger).

After leaving prison, Frank James did a print testimonial for Remington referring to the Remington as 'the finest hand gun I ever carried'.

Modern day power lines visible in the scenes shot in Georgia.

In the Northfield raid Jesse fires his pistol at a bank employee, and hits him right in the forehead, and the man is shown to have a wound there, just as it should have, but also, the viewer sees a splash of blood, roughly six inches, diametrically.

Highly unlikely, with most any handgun that blood would be blasted out of the man's head like that, although the bullet might make it all the way through his head.

Now, if this had been a frangible bullet, this could happen, but dum-dum bullets hadn't been invented then anyway.

During the train robbery, when Jesse kicks open the door to the passenger car, shot from inside, a stage light is clearly visible behind him (above his right shoulder).

The James gang is seen sitting for a portrait sometime before the Northfield raid in 1876.

The photographer uses flash powder, which was not invented until the late 1880s.

In some of the shots where there are horses pulling a wagon, it is clear that the trails they are on were made by modern vehicles.

Clearly if they were wagon trails, the wheel lanes would be smaller and the center of the trail would be torn and scattered from horse's hooves.

The song "I'm a Good Ole Rebel", sung in the saloon scene, was not written until 1918.

During the Northfield raid, when the steam engine came up the street, the tracks from the flat wheels and the heavy weight could be clearly seen in the dirt of the street, but on the next scene as the riders were coming up the street, there were no tracks visible.

The guitarist in the bordello is asked to sing "I'm a good ole rebel".

The song was only copyrighted in 1915.

Although it is possible that it was known in the period portrayed (early 1870s), it is unlikely that it would be so widely known that the performer would have been able to play it from memory.

If so, it would beg the question why the author had not copyrighted.

During the Northfield bank robbery, when the bank customer is shot running out the door to warn the tow,n he is shot in the back and blood splatters on the glass of the door.

In subsequent shots of the door the blood splatter disappears.

When Belle is shooting up the bar, the gun appears first in one hand, then in another, though we never see her changing the gun from hand to hand.

When making their escape after Northfield Bank robbery, a rider slams into a tree limb.

The cable used to snap the actor back off his horse is visible.

Walter Hill directs this retelling of the real life exploits of the Jesse James gang, and its various bank robberies and conflicts. James and Stacy Keach play Jesse and Frank James, and Robert, David, and Keith Carradine play the Younger brothers.

When this film was released, I was in med school, too busy or too broke to go see it. I think the only movie I made the time and spent the money for that year was The Empire Strikes Back.

The western is not what it once was. Remember that the first American movie (1903) was a western, "The Great Train Robbery.

This is one of the best westerns I've ever seen. Using real life brothers to act as the James gang brothers was great.

Interesting little retelling of the James/Younger gang, their robberies and in the end their demise. A very cool idea in using actual brothers {the Keach's, (James and Stacy), the Carradine's (David, Keith and Robert) and the Quaid's (Randy and Dennis)} to play the brothers in the gang.

The American West has provided an endless amount of true-life stories that have become legends of our nation's history. Inevitably, of course, this means that men that are branded as "outlaws" have become a part of all that.

Released in 1980 and directed by Walter Hill, "The Long Riders" is a Western about the James/Younger Gang, former Confederate bushwhackers in Missouri during the Civil War who kept on fighting after the conflict, although they didn't officially become the notorious gang until 1868, at the earliest. The movie details the events over the next dozen or so years during which the gang robbed banks, trains, and stagecoaches in Missouri, Kentucky, Iowa, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, West Virginia and, lastly, Minnesota.

I saw this for the first time recently n generous with a 7 for the violent action sequence n the horses breaking the glass scene. Well, many fellas may question that scene cos it's animal abuse for sheer entertainment.

Director Walter Hill had quite a streak of making solid movies. "The Long Riders" is on that strong list.