After the success of films like Sicario and Wind River, Taylor Sheridan unleashed his instantly iconic neo-Western series Yellowstone,

starring Kevin Costner as the tough rancher John Dutton. After decades of championing the Old West, Costner was right at home in the

series, which focuses on a family defending their Montana ranch. However, just one year after the series began, he starred in another Western thriller in a brilliant Netflix original movie.

 

 

Since the days of movies like Silverado, Dances With Wolves, and Wyatt Earp, Kevin Costner has been the de facto modern face of the Western genre. With Clint Eastwood leaving the Old West behind after 1992’s Unforgiven, the actor has had little in the way of competition to dominate the West on film and TV. From his Hatfields & McCoys miniseries to headlining Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone, he’s proven himself America’s favorite cowboy, whether in the 19th or 21st century. Just one year after joining Sheridan’s hit drama series, he starred alongside Woody Harrelson to bring audiences a fresh, 1930s-set neo-Western crime movie. Netflix has produced a range of compelling original content, but 2019’s The Highwaymen stands out as one of their best films to date, despite being woefully underrated.

 

 

The story of Bonnie and Clyde has been explored countless times by Hollywood, with the Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway movie being the most iconic. However, these stories almost always centered on the killers, sometimes going so far as to imagine them as a romantic Robin Hood couple of the Great Depression. In 2019’s The Highwaymen, this trend was reversed, instead shifting the focus to the two investigators who brought them down, Frank Hamer and Maney Gault. Throughout the film, the writer, John Fusco, makes a point of challenging the legend of Bonnie and Clyde, removing the more romantic vision of them from prior movies and shows.

The Highwaymen begins with the escape of Clyde Barrow from a prison labor camp, where his gang, Bonnie in tow, guns down his captors and drives away with him. In response to their escalating crime spree, the governor of Texas, “Ma” Ferguson, hires former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, who recruits his old partner, Maney Gault, to assist in the pursuit. Using their old-fashioned detective skills, the pair take to the open roads of the Deep South, hunting Bonnie and Clyde across several states. As they travel, they repeatedly have to deal with the myth that the criminals have conjured up about themselves, that they’re a veritable Great Depression-era Robin Hood couple. However, having murdered more blue-collar people than rich folks, nothing could be further from the truth.

When Hamer and Gault finally track Bonnie and Clyde to Bienville Parish, Louisiana, the home of one of the gang members. Teaming up with the local police, they set the stage for an ambush on the duo, luring them out onto a road in the hopes of forcing a surrender. However, seeing the pair reach for their own guns, the posse opens fire, filling the car and its passengers with bullets before the criminals can fire a single shot. Despite being satisfied that justice has been done, Hamer and Gault look on with shame and disgust as locals later swarm the vehicle as it’s paraded around the city of Arcadia. In this scene, the movie makes its message loud and clear: Parker and Barrow were common criminals, and didn’t deserve the fanaticism and adoration that both the public and media gave them. However, even today, that message rings hollow for many who still buy into their image as symbols of rebellion and counter-culture.