Kevin Costner is an actor who makes almost everything he’s in better. A reliable force in Hollywood for decades now, he brings a gravitas to his roles that elevate most projects. In the case of The Highwaymen, a new film that just hit Netflix yesterday, his performance almost is enough to recommend it on its own. The whole final product is a bit too uneven, though Costner is really strong in the central role. While the flick is making some unusual choices, Costner is just doing his thing and putting the movie on his back. It doesn’t fully make up for the shortcomings, but the film knows that Costner is the selling point and leans into that. The movie is a true life drama based on the untold story of the two legendary detectives and former Texas Rangers who were able to bring down Bonnie and Clyde. At the onset,...
- 3/30/2019
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
In its nature, the romance driving folklore bends truths, historical or otherwise. While Davy Crockett was a huntsman, he certainly never killed a bear “when he was only three.” Though this pattern can be justified in almost all cases for the sake of entertainment – though in dull times, the longing for excitement could be an alternative goad for exaggeration – it becomes dangerous once the story it tells and the truth it bends is one that perhaps doesn’t deserve glorification. The purpose of The Highwaymen is to disassemble our perception of one such story.
It’s been over 50 years since Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde was released and changed the landscape of American cinema forever. At the time it was an overlooked masterpiece, a film courageous enough to exhibit the violence we as a species are capable of. Director John Lee Hancock introduced his film at SXSW with the story of Gladys Hamer,...
It’s been over 50 years since Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde was released and changed the landscape of American cinema forever. At the time it was an overlooked masterpiece, a film courageous enough to exhibit the violence we as a species are capable of. Director John Lee Hancock introduced his film at SXSW with the story of Gladys Hamer,...
- 3/12/2019
- by Luke Parker
- We Got This Covered
There’s a scene in director John Lee Hancock’s film “The Highwaymen” which chronicles the astounding multi-city hunt for the infamous criminals Bonnie Parker (Emily Probst) and Clyde Barrow (Edward Bossert) by detectives Frank Hamer (Kevin Costner) and Maney Gault (Woody Harrelson), that perfectly defines the story. It’s when Frank and Maney, semi-retired rangers recruited back on the scene for the high-profile case, stop inside a quaint home where they think their targets might be only to find a quintessential pencil dress and blue suit worn throughout the Great Depression hanging in the closet. “They were playing house,” Frank says.
It’s an important line because, though Frank is referring to Bonnie and Clyde’s bizarrely romantic relationship, it highlights the fact that everything about the main characters in “The Highwaymen” hinges on identity and perception. Frank is a man of a certain age who’s gotten comfortable...
It’s an important line because, though Frank is referring to Bonnie and Clyde’s bizarrely romantic relationship, it highlights the fact that everything about the main characters in “The Highwaymen” hinges on identity and perception. Frank is a man of a certain age who’s gotten comfortable...
- 3/11/2019
- by Candice Frederick
- The Wrap
Arriving more than a half-century after Arthur Penn’s violent folk-ballad “Bonnie and Clyde” tapped into the zeitgeist and caught lightning in a bottle by portraying the Depression-era gangster couple in a manner that recast them as anti-establishment rebels, “The Highwaymen” aims to set the record straight with a respectfully celebratory depiction of the two lawmen most responsible for ending their bloody crime wave. Bosley Crowther, among others, likely would have approved of such revisionism. Still, this workman-like Netflix production — set to kick off a limited theatrical run March 15 before streaming March 29 — commands attention less as historical counterpoint than as a sturdy showcase for the neatly balanced lead performances of Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson.
While Bonnie Parker and Clyde Parker are represented here more or less as fleetingly glimpsed abstractions, embodied by Emily Brobst and Edward Bossert in the manner of anonymous re-enactors in a cable-tv historical documentary, legendary...
While Bonnie Parker and Clyde Parker are represented here more or less as fleetingly glimpsed abstractions, embodied by Emily Brobst and Edward Bossert in the manner of anonymous re-enactors in a cable-tv historical documentary, legendary...
- 3/11/2019
- by Joe Leydon
- Variety Film + TV
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