The Long Riders – Blu-ray Review

51azSxs9caL._SX342_Walter Hill’s 1980 take on the Western format (or, as James Keach puts it in the ‘making of’ documentary, the ‘Mid’ Western). The Long Riders, comes to Blu-ray for the first time.

 

The film follows the post civil war exploits of the infamous James-Younger gang, and centres on the period leading up to their ill-fated bank raid up in Minnesota, and the subsequent fragmentation of the gang. I’m no expert in either US geography, or the activities of the gang. However, that being said, while watching the movie; I was wondering what (if anything), the gang got up to while they traversed the entire length of Iowa (which separates Minnesota from their home state of Missouri), in order to do this bank raid. The film doesn’t really mention it (unless I missed something), so we digress.

 

Famously boasting one helluva cast, as well as an award winning original soundtrack from Ry Cooder, The Long Riders stars just about all the most well known Hollywood actor brothers bar Jeff and Beau Bridges. Yes, that’s right; we have The Carradines (David, Keith, and Robert), The Keaches (Stacey, and James), The Quaids (Randy, and Dennis), and even the Guests (Christopher, and Nicholas). As it turned out, a one time only deal then, and pretty impressive, but not without demerits in places.

 

David Carradine, is his usual ultra-magnetic self, and eats the scenery, and his co-stars, with delight and relish. There really was something very special about that man, and whatever it was, it comes through loud and clear in his performance. Keith Carradine is also worthy of note, his screen presence; although totally different from David’s, is always subtle, and eminently watchable. He’s on good form here. They unfortunately got the Quaid brothers cast the wrong way round, and Dennis is sidelined as Ed Miller (ejected from the gang at the top of the movie), while Randy (arguably, a less gifted actor), takes point as brother Clell. I guess if the movie had been made a few years later, things might have been different. The weakest link in the chain by far, was always James Keach, playing Jesse James. Within the acceptably ‘ensemble’ nature of the piece, he is of course, ostensibly the lead character. His performance however, is rather pale and flat. He adopted a very stolid and inert delivery, which he maintains throughout. It’s borderline dead pan, and is not in the least bit engaging, even in scenes with brother Stacey. One could argue that Keach, although by this time an experienced TV and Film actor, simply didn’t quite measure up against the other talent here, but it seems more basic than that. This is subjective opinion certainly, and others could interpret his performance very differently of course. Whatever it was he was trying to do, it fell short for this reviewer.

The saving grace, is that although Jesse James is of course, the principal character if you had to name one; the movie does play more as an ensemble, and doesn’t live or die on Keach’s performance alone.

 

So, It’s well known, that the movie is very proud of its authentic ‘mid’ western credentials. It is even mentioned specifically in the excellent ‘making of’ documentary included on the disc. This serves as both a blessing and a curse, though, as most people’s expectations of the ‘western’ movie, do unfortunately centre around the more open, dusty, hot locales of Arizona and New Mexico (blame Hollywood being in hot hot California). This has the effect (and admittedly, this is probably something more problematic for non-Americans), of the film’s ‘actual’ historical authenticity, undermining it’s ‘cinematic’ Hollywood authenticity. Weird, but true. Funny how this stuff works isn’t it?

Regardless of this, The Long Riders’ lush, green, mid western locations are nonetheless, generally pleasing to the eye, and cinematically interesting, if not stunning in a Grand Canyon kind of way. There are certainly some great shots that the High Definition format really brings out beautifully, so we’ll say no more about it.

 

For some reason, Walter Hill chose to shoot in 185:1 35mm, and for this (famously ‘scope obsessed), reviewer, this is something that seems counterintuitive, particularly in the Western genre. Admittedly, a movie’s aspect ratio is something that one suspects, most viewers are not even conscious of, let alone have an active opinion on, so we cannot go too hard on Hill for choosing it, if it suited his style. That being said, imagine The Long Riders in 240:1 70mm though? Now you’re talking!

 

In terms of picture/transfer quality; as long as you do not enter into buying a Blu like this with the idea that Hi-Def density will be up there with modern releases, or even benchmark classic titles like Blade Runner and Alien; you will not be disappointed. It must be understood that a smaller scale release like The Long Riders, is just not going to get the frame by frame, painstaking restoration required to bring it into the rarified air of those aforementioned big titles. It’s always going to be a much more workmanlike treatment. One would hope (and enough of these release have come through Filmwerk’s hot little paws to confirm that, this is usually the case), that the Blu-ray transfer of movies like this are, at the very least, of a higher picture quality than existing DVD releases (otherwise what’s the point right?). Thankfully, The Long Riders qualifies. It looks as good as it’s likely to look for some years to come, and acquits itself on a large 50inch Plasma well enough.

 

The original sound mix was mono, and thus, the Blu-ray features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix, which won’t set audiophiles pulses racing, but is perfectly serviceable in this environment. Multi channel surround super sound is not really what releases of this type are all about, and a modern 5.1 or 7.1 design, might have actually seemed slightly incongruous with the retro look and feel of the movie. Having said that, there is that famous slow motion, shootout scene after the aforementioned bank raid goes awry. Hill uses some clever reversed sound loops to create a sort of backwards ricochet effect, that enhances the intensity, and impact (pardon the pun), of the multiple gunshot wounds inflicted on our boys, amid the chaos. The mono sound mix is of course, completely unable to really make these sound effects travel in any meaningful way, remaining flat, front and centre. This then, is an instance where a multichannel surround mix, and some creative positioning, and dynamic movement of the various bullet zings, would have been amazingly effective. Alas, t’was not to be.

 

Incidentally, having recently caught up with Walter Hill’s seminal gang flick The Warriors; seeing that film’s James Remar also turn up in The Long Riders, all leather waistcoat, bare chest and red headband, was hilarious. You had to be there of course, but he looked like he’d walked off the set of one movie, put a wig on, and walked straight into this one. It made me laugh, and It isn’t supposed to.

One digresses yet again.

 

 

The single disc presentation comes (as have several of Walter Hill’s recent back catalogue releases), with at least one decent supplementary program. Here, it’s a 60 minute making of doc that features great contributions from Hill himself, Keach (James), and Robert Carradine. This is a cracking little documentary, and even at a healthy, and robust 60 minutes, I was thirsty for more…in a good way of course. My only gripe (and it’s not really a gripe at all), is that I wish more of the still extant cast members had been interviewed for it. The three main contributors however, are very engaging and fun to listen to though. The surprise of the bunch, being Keach; who is jovial, animated, and endearing in a way that his on-screen Jesse James was not.

In addition to this, we get a short 15 minute breakdown of the aforementioned bank raid shootout scene, which is cool.

Finally, as if in response to questions often posed to Hill since making the movie; there is a 5 minute chat with him about his use of slow motion, and how it relates (or doesn’t apparently), to Sam Peckinpah’s notable use of the technique. Short, but sweet.

On the whole then, a satisfying clutch of bonus features, if not jaw dropping in magnitude.

 

The Long Riders is a good film, maybe almost a great film. Walter Hill produces several extremely memorable scenes, and some brilliantly shot action pieces, and the whole thing holds together rather well. Carradine (David), is a cut above, and lifts the whole thing even further. I’m not sure it’s the best Jesse James film out there, but It is certainly a marvellous curio in terms of it’s incredible cast, and possibly unique in this respect. It has never looked better than now, and is definitely a package worth checking out.

3 Stars

 

 

Ben Pegley

 

 

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