The Highwaymen by John Fusco - 8.7 out of 10

The Highwaymen by John Fusco
8.7 out of 10


Bonnie and Clyde, with the magnificent Warren Beatty and the excellent- although word is very difficult to work with - Faye Dunaway, is not just a masterpiece, but an archetypal classic,  one of the best motion pictures ever made, a lesson in film making and part of cinematic history at its best.

The Highwaymen does not equal that glorious film, but it looks like it has the advantage of being closer to the truth.
This remarkable film chooses a different angle, while Bonnie and Clyde is made from the perspective of those Goodfellas, The Highwaymen tells the story from the other side of the conflict.

Although complex, the outlaws portrayed by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway- who have recently been involved in that debacle with the winner of the best motion picture, when La La Land was wrongly named the best film, if only for some minutes, were rather glamorous and not entirely villainous.
In The Highwaymen, they are presented closer to the real thing, as murderous, atrocious, psychopaths.

When they encounter the law, they kill with what looks like pleasure.
In one scene, two policemen on motorcycles are shot, Bonnie Parker walks slowly, for she has a disability that causes her to drag her foot slightly, and she steps on the injured man - the other was presumably already dead - and makes sure that he sees what she is doing, killing him from close range.

This is sadism, cruelty that indicates a psychopath.
Harvard Professor Tal Ben Shahar mentions in his lectures, that were available on YouTube, that it is good whenever we feel something, even when these emotions are not exhilarating, exalting, for the only ones who feel nothing are:

The dead and the psychopaths.

Bonnie Parker and her allegedly impotent partner, Clyde Barrow, were definitely in that category.
What is hard to understand is the love that communities felt for these outlaws, perhaps love is the wrong word, but they were clearly fascinated with and loyal to these murderers.

In one instance, Frank Hamer aka Kevin Costner tries to find out he whereabouts of the runaways from a gas station owner, who talks about the fact that the wanted fugitives only take from the rich and hence the hero has to use his fists to get his information.
Frank Hamer and Maney Gault aka the always-mesmerizing Woody Harrelson are retired Texas Rangers.

They have reminded me of the glorious characters from the Pulitzer Prize Winner Lonesome Dove, Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call, Texas Rangers as well, only decades before the protagonists of The Highwaymen.
Frank and Maney have a daunting task ahead, considering the violence, the number of dead people the villains have left on their trail, the fact that authorities have been unable to apprehend the infamous monsters.

The Texas Rangers have been fabulous,  but when they start with their new assignment, they are more than rusty, although Frank is improving his shooting, even if, when chasing a boy who delivers messages for the gang and their acolytes, he is overwhelmed by the effort...they use cunning the second time and catch the asset.
There is some overlap with Bonnie and Clyde, including the method they used to get to the assassins, who Frank insists must come home and they need to establish which home would that be.

The Texas Rangers are clever and perspicacious when they try to enlist help from local authorities, determining first through a stratagem if they are honest, trying to bribe them and see if they accept, which would have meant no cooperation would be possible, for all the details would reach the bandits in that case. 
There is no need for a spoiler alert here, for we know they died, a long time ago, but it is astonishing that about 25,000 went to one funeral and I guess about 15,000 attended the other, and people were stampeding to get a piece of shirt or whatever they could get from the bodies, when they were brought to town.

If not on a level with Bonnie and Clyde, this film is formidable nevertheless.