The Long Riders In The Rearview

 August 10, 2026

   Drove down into the Beast yesterday to introduce a classic Western at the Scottsdale Museum of the West.

Real Brothers Riding As Historic Brothers

All The Way to Northfield, Minnesota

   Back in 1971, James Keach wrote a play for he and his brother Stacey to star in, called "Brothers." This led to a Country Musical, "The Bandit Kings" which appeared off Broadway, then that led to a screenplay, "Outlaws" which morphed into "The Bad Guys," and finally as "The Long Riders," which was made into a film directed by Walter Hill and released in 1980.

   Of course, we now know, the title is a misnomer, because the real James-Younger gang actually rode trains from Missouri to Minnesota and bought horses when they got there (although for at least Frank and Jesse, they did, in fact, have a long ride home). The hook to the movie is that real brothers are portraying real brothers and they are:

• James & Stacy Keach, as Jesse and Frank James

• David, Keith and Robert Carradine as the Youngers.

• Dennis and Randy Quaid as the Millers

• Christopher and Nicholas Guest as the Ford Brothers.

   At one point Jeff and Beau Bridges were slated to appear as the Ford brothers but Jeff's filming commitments got in the way.

   They filmed the Northfield scenes in Parrott and Leary, Georgia and the train sequences were done in Sonora, California and the Texas State Railroad.

   The film cost $7.5 million and it only made back $5,891,149 so it was considered a failure, but it has since found an audience and is considered by many a classic. It doesn't hurt that Ry Cooder did the authentic music.

"I hates the Yankee nation

And everything they do

I hates the Declaration of Independence, too:

I hates the glorious Union

 'Tis dripping with our blood

And I hates their stupid banner

I fought it all I could."

—Ry Cooder, "I'm A Good Ol' Rebel" (traditional)