the highwaymen movie review

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Netflix’s The Highwaymen : Just an Excuse to Spend Time With Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson

What if Bonnie and Clyde were just a couple of murderous psychos, and the lawmen who emptied 130 rounds into them were the real heroes? Broadly speaking, that’s the thesis presented by John Lee Hancock’s new Netflix film  The Highwaymen , which follows two aging Texas Rangers who are dragged out of retirement to pursue the elusive, deadly lovers across the Central United States during the Great Depression. But the picture works best, perhaps, as an opportunity to spend some time with the grizzled duo of Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, who step into their roles as these “has-been vaqueros” with comfort and familiarity.

Like all elegiac pseudo-Western characters, these two have found themselves in quite different circumstances in their twilight years. When he’s first approached about going after the killers, the stoic, precise Frank Hamer (Costner) is living a seemingly comfortable retirement thanks to a stint working security for oil companies; by contrast, his former compadre Maney Gault (Harrelson) is jobless and humiliated by the burden he’s causing for his struggling daughter’s family. Gault needs the work, but Hamer takes him on because the rest of their old crew is dead.

Their quarries are the infamous deputy-killing, bank- and gas-station-robbing duo of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, two star-crossed 20-somethings who fused Depression era picture-show glamour with the class resentment borne of economic collapse. They became folk heroes at the time, and have remained so over the years, thanks in part to Arthur Penn’s brilliantly violent 1967 hit  Bonnie and Clyde , a studio movie that was adopted by the era’s youth culture. Hancock doesn’t really try to convince us that Bonnie and Clyde were villains; he treats it as a given, barely ever showing them and allowing their absence to enhance their menace. When we do catch a glimpse of the doomed, gun-crazy lovers, we almost never see their faces; they’re shot from a distance, elusive and ghostly. Even Bonnie’s limp feels less like a sign of vulnerability and more like a serial killer’s trademark strut.

Despite such elements, this isn’t exactly a thriller. It’s more a laconic road movie, with Hamer and Gault making for intriguingly terse companions. We like watching them, which is good, because neither is particularly chatty; Hamer is stoic and focused, while Gault is a mess, a broken alcoholic desperate not to screw up his newfound gig. On the rare occasion when they do open up, it’s to others: Hamer has a brief, unsettling confrontation with Clyde’s father (played by the great William Sadler), in which he recalls how he got started early on being a lawman, and Gault has a gripping late monologue about a ghastly incident from his years as a Ranger that haunts him to this day.

Well-acted and somber,  The Highwaymen  feels at times like a movie designed to embody the restrained, unforthcoming nature of its heroes. And if it seems a little old fashioned and out of step, that’s at least partly intentional: Gault and Hamer’s outdated and questionable methods of law enforcement are on the way out, thanks to the rapid centralization and technological development of the modern surveillance state. But these men can be effective, too, even as they’re befuddled by new procedures. Hamer is able to accomplish forensic wonders with just a couple of glances, while Gault expresses bewilderment at the new fingerprinting and analysis techniques being used by the cops.

There is an idea here, but I wish Hancock had done more with it. It was hard at times not to be reminded of Michael Mann’s significantly more detailed and dense (and, in my mind, superior) John Dillinger drama  Public Enemies , which showed a charismatic, old-school outlaw being slowly cornered by a growing law-enforcement apparatus on one hand, and an increasingly connected mob network on the other. The film also occasionally recalls another superior work, Clint Eastwood’s  A Perfect World , which John Lee Hancock actually wrote (and which also starred Costner, this time as the outlaw on the run).  The Highwaymen  never quite manages to conjure a changing world, and as a result its more interesting ideas are left blowing in the wind. But as an excuse to spend some time with Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson doing what Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson do, it’ll do just fine.

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The Highwaymen

The untold true story of the legendary detectives who brought down Bonnie and Clyde. The untold true story of the legendary detectives who brought down Bonnie and Clyde. The untold true story of the legendary detectives who brought down Bonnie and Clyde.

• John Lee Hancock
• Kevin Costner
• Woody Harrelson
• Kathy Bates
• 525 User reviews
• 114 Critic reviews
• 58 Metascore
• 3 nominations

Top cast 99+

• Frank Hamer

• Maney Gault

• Ma Ferguson

• Lee Simmons

• Deputy Ted Hinton

• Deputy Bob Alcorn

• Gladys Hamer

• Henry Barrow

• Ivy Methvin

• Detective John Quinn

• Agent Kendale

• Wade McNabb
• (as Joshua Caras)

• Sheriff Henderson Jordan

• Deputy Prentiss Oakley

• Bonnie Parker

• Clyde Barrow
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia When Texas Ranger Frank Hamer was earlier portrayed by Denver Pyle in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) , he was characterized as an incompetent fool, prompting his widow Gladys to sue Warner Brothers for defamation of his character. In 1971 an out-of-court settlement was reached.
• Goofs During the movie, "FBI" is used by characters and seen on the underside of a plane. The events of the movie took place from early Feb to May 23 in 1934. The Bureau of Investigation (BOI or BI for short) did not change its name to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) until 1935.

Maney Gault : Clyde might be king, but I'm a Texas Ranger, you little shit.

• Crazy credits During the first part of the closing credits, photos are shown of the real people and scenes portrayed.
• Connections Edited from The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950)
• Soundtracks Afraid to Dream Written by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel Performed by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra Courtesy of RCA Records By arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment

User reviews 525

• Intermissionman_
• Mar 24, 2019
• How long is The Highwaymen? Powered by Alexa
• Did they have radial tires in the 30s?
• What did these lines mean?"There's a place in heaven for Gladys, the way you saw wood."
• What automatic weapon does Frank Hamer fire at the No Trespassing sign ?
• March 29, 2019 (United States)
• United States
• Official Netflix
• Biệt Đội Xa Lộ
• New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
• Casey Silver Productions
• Universal Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $49,000,000 (estimated)

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 12 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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‘the highwaymen’: film review | sxsw 2019.

John Lee Hancock tells the other side of the Bonnie & Clyde saga in 'The Highwaymen,' a detective story starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson.

By THR Staff

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Shifting the viewer’s sympathies from a pair of remorselessly murderous folk heroes to the two lawmen trying to stop their crime spree, John Lee Hancock ‘s The Highwaymen casts Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson as the former Texas Rangers who came out of retirement to hunt Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Self-consciously righteous about its agenda, admitting the darker sides of its heroes while in the same breath justifying their brutality, it’s a workmanlike period manhunt film made noteworthy only by the names of its villains. Certainly, this Netflix pic stands no chance of replacing Arthur Penn’s controversially nasty take on this story — except on Netflix, where his groundbreaking 1967 film is not available for streaming. Which is to say that, for the majority of movie consumers, John Lee Hancock might as well have made the only film about Bonnie and Clyde. Way to support film culture, Netflix.

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Though it withholds their faces until the last moment of its climax, the movie opens with their deeds: The bank-robbing lovers drive up to a field near a prison work gang in Texas, send a rainstorm of Tommy gunfire into the air and free some of their compatriots in a daring jailbreak. It’s the kind of thing the Lone Star State can’t ignore, and soon the governor, “Ma” Ferguson ( Kathy Bates ), is sending multiple crews of detectives to track them down. Despite having shut down the Texas Ranger program, Ferguson is convinced by prison-system head Lee Simmons (John Carroll Lynch) to call two Rangers back as “special highway assignment” officers. The first is Costner’s Frank Hamer, a legendary Ranger whose stature is not really explained here.

Release date: Mar 29, 2019

(The film hints at his sexism when Hamer refers to Ferguson as “the Lady Governor,” but doesn’t do it justice. In fact, he told reporters in the ’30s that “when they elected a woman governor for the second time, I quit.”)

Hamer drives out to Lubbock to recruit old partner Maney Gault (Harrelson), then thinks better of it when he sees the alcoholic shuffling feebly across his lawn. Gault convinces him he can do the job, though; soon, both men are trying to prove their worth to young G-men with modern notions and high-tech tools.

The movie uses the characters’ age as a point of comic relief a few times, but it clearly believes that older is better: Whenever the Rangers and the Feds are on a crime scene together, Hamer is made to look like Sherlock Homes surrounded by Keystone cops. Despite having set things up as a race between rival teams to find the outlaws, the filmmakers more or less forget about the Feds midway through the picture.

As Hamer and Gault pursue leads and interview the killers’ family members, Hamer gets plenty of chances to disabuse people of their romantic ideas. “Those kids you grew up with aren’t human anymore,” he tells a young cop (Thomas Mann) who once knew them. The lawmen and the film are disgusted by the extent to which ordinary Americans have romanticized Bonnie and Clyde. In its script and its staging of crime scenes, it does everything possible to suggest there was only one way to end their rampage: an ambush in Louisiana that was a de facto assassination.

Nobody comes to a movie like The Highwaymen looking for a nuanced view of crime and punishment, and heaven knows they won’t get it here. Instead, we get lectures on poor choices and the things a man must do to keep the peace in a vicious world. 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. You don’t have to be sympathetic to a pair of psychopathic killers to wish for a movie with more tolerance of ambiguity and more confidence that its viewers already know right from wrong. When it comes to Bonnie and Clyde, you shouldn’t look for it on Netflix.

Production companies: Casey Silver Productions, Media Rights Capital, Universal Pictures Distributor: Netflix Cast: Kevin Costner, Woody Harrelson, John Carroll Lynch, Thomas Mann, Kim Dickens, W. Earl Brown, William Sadler, Kathy Bates Director: John Lee Hancock Screenwriter: John Fusco Producer: Casey Silver Executive producers: Michael J. Malone, John Lee Hancock, Woody Harrelson, Kevin Costner, Rod Lake Director of photography: John Schwartzman Production designer: Michael Corenblith Costume designer: Daniel Orlandi Editor: Robert Frazen Composer: Thomas Newman Casting director: Denise Chamian Venue: SXSW Film Festival (Headliners)

Rated R, 132 minutes

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The Highwaymen Reviews

...while not exactly box-fresh, there’s lots to enjoy in two big star performances, a strong sense of period detail (as you’d expect from a $50 million production) and a decidedly retro ‘respect the law’ POV….

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 7, 2024

The power of The Highwaymen is that it allows room for the viewer to draw their own conclusions.

Full Review | Original Score: B | May 10, 2024

I get the inevitable complaints of “too slow” and “not enough action”. Yet I found myself loving it – the slow burn, the prickly Costner, the subtle moral questions it tosses out there.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 21, 2022

Kevin Costner and [Woody Harr;elson, how can you go wrong?... they both do what they do well.

Full Review | Sep 30, 2021

"The Highwaymen" portrays the more upright ethics of the Depression era, law enforcement and media-wise, and feels vastly more realistic than its famous 1967 "Bonnie and Clyde" cinematic predecessor.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 26, 2021

The film is far too long but Costner and Harrelson make it worth your while what with their poignant, sincere performances.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4.0 | Nov 14, 2020

It's unfair to hold such a modest effort to the high standard of the 1967 masterpiece. ... Still, it's a fine companion piece that's the type of old-fashioned, midrange, character-driven story that we don't get often enough these days.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 24, 2020

There's a reason why you probably haven't heard of Frank Hamer and Maney Gault before, and this lightweight film doesn't make much of a case for them having a story worth telling.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jul 2, 2020

The famous outlaws Bonnie & Clyde hardly get a single close-up in this fascinating study of the rangers brought out of retirement to track them down.

Full Review | Jun 26, 2020

The story behind the demise of legendary Bonnie & Clyde at the well-armed hands of two ageing Texas Rangers gets a solid, unhurried treatment here...Director John Lee Hancock directs the drama with a hard nose and with no love for the celebrity criminals.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 30, 2020

The Highwaymen wants to plumb its themes' moral ambiguity, but it wants to have a cut-and-dry ending even more.

Full Review | Jan 17, 2020

It's a shame, then, that this meeting of weirdo star power is never more than pedestrian...

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Jan 8, 2020

A lot of why this works is because of [Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson's] chemistry together.

Full Review | Sep 23, 2019

Given its 50 million dollar budget, I can't help but wonder how that could have been better spent taking risks on lesser known, but more inspiring stories than this.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Aug 17, 2019

The Highwaymen is a well-done period piece and stands out as an original Bonnie and Clyde themed tale.

Full Review | Original Score: 4 | Aug 15, 2019

Above all, what The Highwaymen is not is the Bonnie and Clyde story, shifting the focus in a way that proves unsatisfying.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2019

Costner and Harrelson take us on a new road towards Bonnie and Clyde.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 20, 2019

It isn't as dynamic or memorable as it could have been, but The Highwaymen still builds a compelling drama using a fascinating chapter from history combined with some solid acting and impressive camera work.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 8, 2019

A slow-moving Bonnie & Clyde manhunt Western that coasts by on the manliness and easy rapport of its leading men.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 4, 2019

The Highwaymen is made for a movie night in; unlike some of the platform's other offerings, no one will make the argument that you must see this perfectly OK film on the big screen.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 30, 2019