The Long Riders | Rotten Tomatoes (2025)

81% Tomatometer 27 Reviews 73% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings

During a bank robbery by the legendary James-Younger Gang, Ed Miller (Dennis Quaid) impulsively kills a man, much to the displeasure of leader Jesse James (James Keach), who insists that the gang scatter until the heat is off. The groups of brothers go their separate ways, with Cole Younger (David Carradine) considering settling down with his feisty girlfriend, Belle Starr (Pamela Reed). But they soon regroup for an ill-fated bank job in Northfield, Minn., that results in an epic chase.

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The Long Riders

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Critics Consensus

With its pared down storytelling, The Long Riders delivers with an evocative atmosphere and artful brutality.

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Critics Reviews

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The Long Riders | Rotten Tomatoes (1) Richard Schickel TIME Magazine Hill is very much in the American grain, the inheritor of the Ford-Hawks-Walsh tradition of artful, understated action film making. Oct 7, 2011 Full Review The Long Riders | Rotten Tomatoes (2) Dave Kehr Chicago Reader Walter Hill's first outright failure. Feb 5, 2008 Full Review The Long Riders | Rotten Tomatoes (3) Variety Staff Variety What's ultimately missing is a definable point of view which would tie together the myriad events on display and fill in the blanks which Hill has imposed on the action by sapping it of emotional or historical meaning. Feb 5, 2008 Full Review The Long Riders | Rotten Tomatoes (4) Mitchell Beaupre Paste Magazine Strips away a lot of the steely gazes and taciturn men from Hill's first few pictures and gives us richly detailed interpersonal dynamics in the James-Younger gang and the men and women circling around them. Rated: 7.5/10 Sep 29, 2023 Full Review The Long Riders | Rotten Tomatoes (5) Roger Moore Movie Nation The story of the James-Younger Gang told in stately, sweeping vistas, star charisma, cold-blooded stares and bursts of epic Peckinpah violence. Rated: 4/4 Nov 14, 2021 Full Review The Long Riders | Rotten Tomatoes (6) Stephen Farber New West/California The Long Riders is exceptionally well made, but I came out feeling that there was no pressing reason to make it at all. Nov 3, 2021 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Johannes S Great, short, and fast-paced western flick. Tells the interesting story without bloating it up. Rated 4/5 Stars • Rated 4 out of 5 stars 09/25/24 Full Review John H Very good fairly accurate telling on the James Younger Gang. Good story and acting plus stylized action Rated 3.5/5 Stars • Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/24 Full Review Stephen C Walter Hills fantastic Western is on a par with Sam Peckinpah and the casting is perfect.The film was probably missed in the rush to pound Heaven's gate .And United Artists were pretty much dead in the water meaning other films like this Cutters Way and The Dogs of War escaped rather than being releasedApart from that the film delivers and the final raid on the bank is up there with anything Peckinpah shot Rated 5/5 Stars • Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/14/23 Full Review Audience Member Good western with a lot of foul language in it so be careful, James Welch, Henderson, Arkansas, July 1, 2023 Rated 3/5 Stars • Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/02/23 Full Review Federico T If you're looking for a masterfully directed western that's perfectly balanced between environmental authenticity and elegiac characters' strenght and charisma, this is the movie for you. Rounded in family bonds' fundamental purposes and inescapable backlashes, vendetta's harsh violence and the depiction of a soon to collapse self-regulated and self-segregated provincial world on the outskirts of the modern american society ambition that the Civil War aftermath was going to digest and offer to a yet fragmented country, Walter Hill forges an intense and peculiar movie that loves to the bone the western aestethics but also places itself in an unusual midwestern setting. Everything in this plot progresses utterly epic still remaining realistic, somewhat stiff and composed, as passages of a ritual, to elevate gestures and significant moments, stages of a timetable that from the legendary deeds and renegade conduct of the James-Younger gang end in the downward spiral of these hopeless men that just won't fit at all with the expectations of their country to be. The family element is crucial to underline dramatically the emotions that are in the game but also to gain that kind of credibility to make the numerous cast gel (built upon groups of real brothers actors). The search of an authentic environment is the key to the entire operation, affecting everything from the locations, the historically accurate soundtrack by Ry Cooder, till the toned down, even darkened, film foil. Rated 5/5 Stars • Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/05/23 Full Review Steve D Far too simplistic to work. Rated 2/5 Stars • Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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Cast & Crew

Walter Hill Director David Carradine Cole Younger Keith Carradine Jim Younger Robert Carradine Bob Younger James Keach Jesse James Stacy Keach Frank James
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The Long Riders

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Synopsis During a bank robbery by the legendary James-Younger Gang, Ed Miller (Dennis Quaid) impulsively kills a man, much to the displeasure of leader Jesse James (James Keach), who insists that the gang scatter until the heat is off. The groups of brothers go their separate ways, with Cole Younger (David Carradine) considering settling down with his feisty girlfriend, Belle Starr (Pamela Reed). But they soon regroup for an ill-fated bank job in Northfield, Minn., that results in an epic chase.

Director
Walter Hill

Producer
Tim Zinneman

Screenwriter
Bill Bryden, Steven Smith, James Keach, Stacy Keach

Production Co
Huka Productions, United Artists

Rating
R

Genre
Western, Biography

Original Language
English

Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 30, 2016

Runtime
1h 40m
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