X
- 2019
- R
- Netflix
- 2 h 12 m
- 2019
- R
- Netflix
- 2 h 12 m
Summary The outlaws made headlines. The lawmen made history. The Highwaymen follows the untold true story of the legendary detectives who brought down Bonnie and Clyde. When the full force of the FBI and the latest forensic technology aren't enough to capture the nation's most notorious criminals, two former Texas Rangers (Kevin Costner and Wood...
Directed By: John Lee Hancock
Written By: John Fusco
- 2019
- R
- Netflix
- 2 h 12 m
- 2019
- R
- Netflix
- 2 h 12 m
The Highwaymen
58
7.1
Where to Watch
Summary The outlaws made headlines. The lawmen made history. The Highwaymen follows the untold true story of the legendary detectives who brought down Bonnie and Clyde. When the full force of the FBI and the latest forensic technology aren't enough to capture the nation's most notorious criminals, two former Texas Rangers (Kevin Costner and Wood...
Directed By: John Lee Hancock
Written By: John Fusco
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
58
39% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
57% Mixed
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
4% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
58
39% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
57% Mixed
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
4% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Even if you’ve somehow never even heard of the story upon which this film is based, it’s a crackling good lawman tale.
What we have is a solidly crafted reworking of some familiar Western tropes by director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, Saving Mr. Banks), a Texas native who shows care for the period details, with handsome cinematography on the original Lone Star State locations.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 110 User Ratings
7.1
67% Positive
74 Ratings
74 Ratings
31% Mixed
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
2% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 110 User Ratings
7.1
67% Positive
74 Ratings
74 Ratings
31% Mixed
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
2% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
This film is a finely crafted period piece about depression era America. Everything from the setting to the dialogue to the brilliantly executed musical score to the attire pulls you to a different time. The factors the critics tended to pan - the lack of perspective from Bonnie and Clyde themselves, for example, are to my mind deliberately conspicuous in their absence. The film is telling a story about the integrity of social institutions in a time of hardship and change, and in that story, I find the contradictions to be the fundamental flavor of the film rather than an unpleasant aftertaste.
This is one of my favorite movies. I rewatch it frequently. I think it got **** on by the critics because it wasn't the Bonnie and Clyde movie *they* would have liked to see. Perhaps it isn't the best retelling of the story of Bonnie and Clyde, but then again, maybe this movie is trying to tell a different story.
The movie isn't about whether or not Bonnie and Clyde deserve to be depicted in a sympathetic light. It's about the much more challenging and timely question of whether or not America as a civilization deserves to be depicted in a sympathetic light. And in that, I find it to be eminently relevant and meaningful.
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There was more to Bonnie and Clyde than 'Bonnie and Clyde,' but The Highwaymen falls short of making the case that the good guys had the better tale.
A smoothly executed but decidedly drab crime drama. Checking all the necessary narrative boxes for its target audience and asking little of stars Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson other than to bring their well-established onscreen personas to the characters, the latest from director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, Saving Mr. Banks) dabbles in familiar dramatic ironies and rather obvious observations about violence, celebrity and ageing. The Highwaymen never puts a foot wrong, but it fails to elicit much passion or fascination.
There are so many missteps that Hancock and screenwriter John Fusco make here, but to list a few briefly: The dialogue is 85-per-cent clumsy exposition, the heroes are given exactly one character trait each (Gault’s a drunk, Hamer’s a jerk) and the film’s politics read as MAGA-esque vigilante evangelicalism (the movie is perpetually on the verge of having Hamer say, directly to the camera, something along the lines of, “the only good criminal is a dead criminal”).
Costner and Harrelson both give fine performances, but when it's time for each to have his one allotted dramatic monologue, you can practically hear the movie clearing its throat: Shut up and listen while the man is speaking, folks.
Hamer and Gault won the day in a hail of submachine fire, but even their hagiography can’t hide that they’re history’s losers.
Good movies in the era of cheap imitations! The actors play very well. Old school!
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If your into card board cutouts for characters and black and white bad guy good guy movies were the cops beat poor people up to get information but its for a good cause. Then this is your show other wise its such a waste of great acting talent, other than that I guess the production value is ok , its sort of funny every time the radio gets tuned in the olde timey announcer just so happened to announce an exploit of bnc, in this tepid world I guess its just a slow ride in an ole ford till the end we all know is coming.
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Awards
Satellite Awards
• 1 Nomination
SXSW Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Location Managers Guild International Awards (LMGI)
• 1 Nomination
