‘THE HIGHWAYMEN’ OFFERS DIFFERENT VIEW OF BONNIE AND CLYDE
The best way to look at “The Highwaymen” may be as a riposte, decades later, to Arthur Penn’s highly influential 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde.” The new movie offers a very different view of the storied outlaws, focusing instead on two former Texas Rangers who were instrumental in bringing them down.
“The Highwaymen” is the pet project of screenwriter John Fusco (“Hidalgo”), who has long wanted to answer the 1967 movie because, in his view, it portrayed a pair of cold-blooded killers with sympathy and made villains of the police officers who ended their reign of terror — in particular Frank Hamer, who is singled out for humiliation in Penn’s movie.
The Hamer we see in “The Highwaymen,” played by Kevin Costner, is an aging version of the man who had been a famously tough hombre with the Rangers. The group has been disbanded, and Hamer must be talked out of retirement by an official working for Texas Gov. “Ma” Ferguson (Kathy Bates). What finally convinces him is the fact that, among their other victims, Bonnie and Clyde have killed six lawmen.
With reluctance, Hamer accepts help from his old colleague Maney Gault (Woody Harrelson), an ex-Ranger who for years had been drowning himself in alcohol. While Hamer is dour but not without humor, Gault gets more of the comedy lines and functions as the film’s conscience. He’s troubled by the plan to simply gun down Bonnie and Clyde — if that happens, what’s the difference between cops and criminals?
We actually see few glimpses of the outlaws, who are mostly relegated to the shadows. As Hamer and Gault pursue them, the killings mount, and we get some disturbing views of the reality that some members of the public considered Bonnie and Clyde to be Depression-era Robin Hoods — which they weren’t.
The outlaws are finally killed in an ambush that’s almost as bloody as the famous ending of “Bonnie and Clyde,” which lingered
on the writhing bodies of the couple as they were riddled with bullets. The version in “The Highwaymen” is another example of how the film doesn’t overplay its revisionism. The killing is gruesome and no doubt excessive, but the result is an air of sadness, not celebration.
Under the direction of John Lee Hancock, “The Highwaymen” feels a cut above a TV movie, though it still seems to spell everything out pretty bluntly. Hancock, however, has an impressive command of period details. Costner’s performance is mostly monotone, but Harrelson has some nice moments portraying Gault as surprisingly reflective.
Despite the movie’s limitations, it’s safe to say that screenwriter Fusco has accomplished his goal.