Reviewing Movies

Jesse James father was a slave-owning Southern Baptist Minister who died in the Gold fields of 49. Since the brothers were too young and woman could not own property their Father’s Executor squandered their birthright. Frank and Jesse honed their skills as guerrilla raiders for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Returning home after the war they became involved in another battle with the railroad and its ruthless minions who were buying up farmland at cut-rate prices and forcing their neighbours off their land. Robbing the banks that held railroad money seemed the best way to get back at the railroad, after all the banks were insured. After eight of them pulled off a robbery that netted eight thousand the newspaper reported that 20 made off with $50,0000. Deciding that the banks were cheating the insurance companies henceforth the gang issued their own press releases. They also found it strategic planning to share the wealth they amassed with the people they saw the banks as victimizing therefore ensuring a sympathetic populace to get their backs and ensuring their lasting Robin Hood like myth. Whereas Jesse was a charismatic man of action it was his quiet brother Frank who was the intellectual thinker of the gang. Their cousins the Youngers, Cherokee tracker Tom, Clell Miller, and Loni Packwood round out the core gang.

It is the mischievous gleam in Colin Farrell’s eye that defines the movie. Who says robbin banks can’t be fun and as long as nobody does anything stupid why shouldn’t it be civil? Don’t get me wrong, people get injured and die in this movie and dynamite explodes and guns blaze; but it is told from the point of view of the James Brothers with a comedic touch that informs even the most dangerous scenes. The army, the Pinkerton Men, and the railway men play comic relief. As Alan Pinkerton Timothy Dalton shows undisguised admiration for the man he is paid to bring to justice. The banks and the railroad are the bad guys here, not the James-Younger Gang.