Ride With the Devil-DVD.
One of those rare cases where the book and the movie are both equally good. "Ride With the Devil" is about the guerrillas of western Missouri. It does so many things right it's impossible to name them all. The story centers around Jake Roedel, German-born but raised amidst Missouri Southerners. He and a freed slave, Holt, fight together as bushwhackers in western Missouri and in the Lawrence, Kansas raid with Quantrill. The scenery and settings are vivid and authentic. Terrific action and battle scenes. Singer Jewel does a fine job as the young, tempting widow. There's very good character development between the Confederate bushwhacker and the freed slave without it ever being maudlin. Audio on the DVD is excellent, especially with 5.1 surround, and there are a number of extra features. Highly recommended.

See Also: Ride With the Devil
the novel by Daniel Woodrell
and


Ride With the Devil Soundtrack





American Outlaws

The recent movie allegedly about the James-Younger gang. Okay... there's no history in this movie, but it's fun, and shows how the "legend" has survived for over a century. A curious thing about this complete non-history film is that they seem to have gotten the personality of Jesse James the closest to "right" compared to any of the many other films. Most portray Jesse as either dark and brooding, while "American Outlaws" portrays him as light-hearted and cheerful. Read the 1873 first-person interview with Jesse James on the Civil War St. Louis page "A Terrible Quintette" and compare.



The Outlaw Josey Wales-VHS
and
The Outlaw Josey Wales-DVD
Clint Eastwood stars as Josey Wales, a Missouri farmer whose home is attacked by Union Jayhawkers. His wife and child are killed and he joins the Confederate bushwhackers in the bloody guerrilla war. The first half of the movie is quite a good portrayal of the nature of the Civil War in the western border country of Missouri. The second half is standard Clint Eastwood western movie fare. A harsh, serious movie.

The Long Riders-DVD
and
The Long Riders-VHS
Probably the finest, most accurate movie about the James-Younger gang made. Sets of brothers were cast in all the roles with a moody, intense script. Recommended.



The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid (VHS only)
More humorous than the filmmakers intended. This film uses the image of the James-Younger gang members as superstitious, uneducated hillbillies. The most unintentionally funny part was the "treeless prairies" surrounding Northfield, Minnesota which came complete with pine-covered mountains in the background (they filmed in Oregon).



Frank and Jesse-DVD
Bill Paxton as Frank James, Rob Lowe as Jesse James... great actors, cute guys romping around on horses shooting things and acting moody and tortured, how could it miss? Unfortunately this non-history history film tried to play it seriously (unlike American Outlaws which works because they didn't play it seriously). This film does use a few real incidents but twists and contorts those (the body-count on the Northfield robbery in this version is hilarious compared to reality). It is a pretty good action/adventure western, though. If you can mentally divorce yourself from any sense of history and watch this as a totally fictional film about two guys who happen to be named Frank and Jesse James, it's pretty good.

Jesse James (1939)

and




The Return of Frank James (1940)
Early films with Henry Fonda and Tyrone Power. Really quite good, though make allowances for historical inaccuracies.