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American Outlaws
American Outlaws is a great cowboy film. While it will never become a classic like The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, it manages to combine humour, gunfights and dodginess in a very pleasing and rewatchable manner.
American Outlaws follows the career of Jesse James (Colin Farrel) and his war with the Railroad Baron Thadeus Reins. Now, I am sure that much poetic license has been taken with the story, but, if it hadn’t it would probably be really boring and have no reason for Zee Mimms (Ali Larter) to fire a cannon into a train.
Starting with a full on battle between the Confederates and the Yankees, complete with Gatling Gun and Cannon, the film manages to segue nicely from one action sequence to the next, with only minimal plot involvement. The extent of the plot is the railroad wants the farms, blows up the James’ farmhouse and kills Ma James. This sends the James brothers, along with their cousins, the Younger brothers, to seek revenge, which comes in the form of stealing, shooting and blowing things up.
Dodginess
American Outlaws contains enough dodginess to satisfy even the most jaded watcher. There are a number of gun fights, ambushes, explosions, even a stampede, and yet, the moment that really pushes this one over into the realms of the 5 Stay Puft Marshmallow Man rating is Ali Larter firing the cannon into the oncoming train. It’s an unexpected moment that is completely over the top, and yet, just fits in so well with the rest of the movie.
Rewatchability Rating
American Outlaws has a good combination of humour and action, and even throws in the occasional romantic moment for the women, which results in it scoring 4 on the rewatchability index. It’s a good cowboy film, and is likely to be my first choice if I want to watch a western, however, it wouldn’t be a first choice if I just wanted a dodgy movie.
Most Memorable Quote
There are a couple of great interchanges, including one that ends with the line that is probably the reason for more Darwin Awards and stupid drinking games than any other comment “Well, I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time.” But the line that stands out most is kind of a repeated one. When Pinkerton (Timothy Dalton) is discussing how he’s going to catch the James-Younger gang and why it hasn’t happened yet, his comment is the same with a different season in it “It’s going to be a long Spring.”
Final Thoughts
American Outlaws is a watchable modern Western that doesn’t try to be Oscar winning material. It’s enjoyable, and when it comes to dodgy movies, that’s all that really counts.