Few historical figures have been so frequently portrayed on camera as Jesse James. From early silent features to the Brad Pitt star vehicle The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Hollywood has found no shortage of material to mine from the life of the legendary outlaw. It might come as a surprise to many movie fans that Robert Duvall played James in the 1972 revisionist western The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid, which dramatizes one of the most infamous bank robberies he ever carried out. Rather than turn this episode into a thrilling adventure, The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid seeks to de-mystify the James legend by presenting this story with gritty naturalism.
What Is the Western ‘The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid’ About?
It’s the 1870s, and the James-Younger gang has been granted amnesty by the Missouri legislature, which doesn’t sit well with all the bankers they’ve robbed. After being shot by some Pinkerton agents hired to track the gang, Cole Younger (Cliff Robertson) decides it’s time to leave his life of crime behind. Jesse and his brother, Frank James (John Pearce), disagree, and they branch off on their own. Yet Cole and his brother, Jim Younger (Luke Askew), soon find themselves intrigued by a potential bank heist in Northfield, Minnesota. The townspeople are at first reluctant to put their money in the bank — seeing how they keep getting robbed — but Cole and his gang convince them it’s safe since a large shipment of gold is being stored there. They reunite to rob the bank, which goes horribly wrong. Jesse and Frank abandon Cole and the others to be killed by a posse, and on their way out of town, they make plans to form a new gang. Jesse suggests they recruit young Bob Ford, which will prove to be a fatal mistake.
The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid was written and directed by Philip Kaufman, who would go on to great success as a director with Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Right Stuff, and The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and as a screenwriter on Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Outlaw Josey Wales. One common theme that runs through many of his films — particularly The Right Stuff and The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid — is the deconstruction of American icons (astronauts in the former, cowboys in the latter). Whereas many depictions of James before and after Kaufman’s take an almost mythical approach to the famed outlaw’s exploits, The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid brings the legend down to Earth. In this way, it was in keeping with the revisionist Westerns that had become popular in the 1960s and ’70s, which took a grittier, bloodier approach to Hollywood’s oldest genre.
‘The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid’ Is a Classic Revisionist Western
Few genres are as deeply rooted in the history of cinema as Westerns. From the earliest nickelodeons to John Wayne adventures, tales of strong, silent cowboys taming the Wild West were immensely popular throughout the first century of film. While many early westerns were morality plays with black-and-white visions of good and evil, directors like John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Anthony Mann began adding shades of gray to their stories. Western heroes became increasingly complex, as filmmakers dealt with the inescapable moral quandary of a protagonist who solves problems with a gun.
This hit its apex with the revisionist Westerns of the late ’60s and early ’70s, which embraced this ethical dilemma by making the antagonists into protagonists. Starting with the Clint Eastwood spaghetti Westerns (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly), the typically virtuous Western hero was replaced with the kind of nefarious character that would usually be gunned down in a duel. This got taken a step further in 1969 with Sam Peckinpah‘s ultra-violent The Wild Bunch, which centered on a gang of bank robbers adjusting to changing times. Peckinpah’s bleak vision of the west was released the same year as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which turned a pair of outlaws into a couple of charming rascals played by Paul Newman and Robert Redford. The celebration of the antihero was totally in keeping with the growing counterculture, which rejected the more conservative values of their parents and embraced a more anti-establishment attitude.
The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid certainly belongs in this category, but it also shares many similarities with Robert Altman‘s McCabe & Mrs. Miller, released the year before. Like other revisionist Westerns, McCabe & Mrs. Miller focuses on atypical Western heroes, but it’s more notable for the gritty naturalism with which it tells its story. Kaufman was undoubtedly influenced by the wet, muddy mining town Altman created for his film, which is as far away from an idealized version of the old west as you can get. The town of Northfield, Minnesota, is similarly gray and gloomy, and Kaufman films it in a cinéma vérité style that makes you feel as though you’re actually there in the muck.
A common theme in most revisionist Westerns is the encroachment of technology on the Old West, which forever alters a way of life that includes sleeping under the stars. For outlaws like Jesse James and Cole Younger, the industrial revolution didn’t merely change their lives, but destroyed their means of earning a living. In The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid, the gang is foiled in their robbery attempt by a newfangled mechanical lock that bolts the vault shut, which leads to several members being shot dead. Like other outlaws, James and Younger can’t adjust to the changing world, which proves to be their undoing.
Robert Duvall Is a Western King
Few actors of the modern era have spent as much time on a horse as Robert Duvall. Even though he has movies like The Godfather, Network, and Apocalypse Now on his resume, Duvall is probably best known for donning a cowboy hat and playing up his southern accent. From full-on Westerns like True Grit, Lonesome Dove, and Open Range to spiritual Westerns like his Oscar-winning role in Tender Mercies, Duvall did his best to keep cowboy stories alive even as audience interest dwindled. It shouldn’t be a surprise that he’d be a good fit for Jesse James, considering how much time he’s spent in the saddle, but what made Duvall such a brilliant choice was the emotional authenticity he brought to the role. Rather than play him as an icon, Duvall presents him as a man so concerned with his own legacy that he inevitably destroys it. In that way, he was the perfect Jesse James for an audience that had no tolerance for American folklore, opting for something more realistic instead.
The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid is available to watch on Starz in the U.S.
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