Frank & Jesse

This was the second Jesse James film I ever saw. I first saw American Outlaws and realized that it wasn't very accurate. This is not a great film like Dances With Wolves or Tombstone, but is very good in my book. It shows a lot about what the former confederates had to go through after the war. The movie really shows the darker side of Jesse James and how passionate he was about what he did. Rob Lowe, Bill Paxton, and Randy Travis are great. But why do they have to change things like Bob Younger being a mute, their first bank robbery being in 1869 when it was in 1866, the fact that Jesse was shot once in the head and the second shot missed, and Bob Younger being shot by his brother Cole when he was actually captured with Cole after the North Field Raid. I believe that these things could have been changed and made a even better movie. Besides some other little things this is a fine historical movie and one of my personal favorites. If you like it see The Long Riders.

An unsentimental and violent Western emphasising mythical conventions , starred by a good cast as the members of the band . Revisionist and contemporary study about famous outlaws : Jesse , Frank James and Younger brothers .This is a slight and plain biopic about Jesse/Frank James who ranks with Billy the Kid as the most famous of Western outlaws . Then Pinkerton detectives were hired by the railroad company to hunt down Jesse and Frank . Legend and folklore have cast him as a Robin Hood , a good boy forced by circumstances to follow a criminal life . ¨Frank and Jesse¨ (1995) by Robert Boris with fine casting as Rob Lowe , Bill Paxton , Randy Travis , Dana Wheeler-Nicholson , Maria Pitillo , Luke Askew and Sean Patrick Flanery . Yet another recounting of the infamous James (Jesse: Rob Lowe , producer too , and Frank: Bill Pullman , this performance fraternity acquits itself well ) , who the public regarded them as heroes , from Missouri to Minnesota . It is set at the end of the Civil War, Frank and Jesse James and other former guerillas who rode with Quantrill and Bill Anderson take the oath of allegiance to the Union. Feeling oppressed by Chicago railroad investors, the James and Younger brothers : Cole and Bob Younger , Bob and Charlie Ford, Clell Miller and Arch Clements take to robbing Banks , trains , ambushes , and stagecoaches attacks , including the fateful Northfield raid with Alain Pinkerton (William Atherton) sworn to bringing them to justice . This one deals with origins , exploits and the ultimate fate of the Jesse James gang is told in an enticing portrayal of the bank robbers made up of brothers who begin their legendary bank raids because of vendetta ; these are the following ones : the James , Frank (Bill Pullman) and Jesse (Rob Lowe) , Cole Younger (Randy Travis ) , Bob Younger (Todd Field) , ,Clell Miller (John Pyper-Ferguson) and Arch Clements (Nicholas Sadler) . Later on , the agents surrounded the home , believing they to be there , tossed a bomb and the explosion killed Jesse's relatives . It is believed that Jesse took part in his first robbery in 1866 when a dozen men held up the bank in Liberty , Missouri . A bank cashier was killed in the raid and a reward was offered for each of the James brothers . In 1873 Jesse and his band derailed and robbed a train on the Rock Island line . Jesse married his cousin Zerelda (Maria Pitillo) , who bore him two children . As soon as railroad agents kill their father and hurt their mother , Jesse James and Frank take up robbing banks and trains and seek revenge . Then , the Pinkerton Agency is engaged to bring the James-Younger gang in . At the end James is betrayed by the treacherous Ford brothers : Charlie Ford and Bob Ford . As Jesse retires his erstwhile friend Robert Ford shoots him in the back to get the reward . On 3 April 1882 Bob Ford , a new member of the gang , treacherously shot Jesse dead in back of the head in his home at St Joseph , Missouri . Bad Is Good Again. This Much Fun Can't Be Legal! Sometimes the wrong side of the law is the right place to be .The civil war made them outlaws. The people made them heroes

This is a laconic , deliberate , agreeable but slowly paced Western movie . There is a concentration on familiar rituals as the funeral , family reunion and band relationships ; but also on common Western rituals as train assaults , shootous , go riding and the spectacular robbing . It displays decent actors giving enjoyable acting , attempting not to make heroes of the boys , with a casting of known actors . The studio bought the rights to the James Brothers but changed some facts for psychological and family motivations , instead serving up a potted commentary on the conventions of the genre itself . The trump card here is the train assaults , shot in moving style and violently realized. It boasts a nice protagonist duo : Rob Lowe and Bill Paxton . And a top-notch support cast , such as : Randy Travis , Dana Wheeler-Nicholson , Maria Pitillo , Luke Askew , Sean Patrick Flanery , Alexis Arquette , Todd Field , John Pyper-Ferguson , Nicholas Sadler , among others . It packs an atmospheric and evocative cinematography by Walt Lloyd . And an attractive soundtrack by Mark McKenzie , fits magnificently to the flick . The motion picture was professional but deliberately directed by Robert Boris in average budget . Here Boris focuses on the subjects of brotherhood , kinship , friendship and about the territories taken wrongly by railway ; refusing to bother too much about historic events .

This James/ Frank retelling has been adapted several times , ¨Frank and Jesse¨ has a distinguished company of movies , each version gutsier and bloodier than the last , such as : 1939 recounting ¨Jesse James¨ by Henry King with Tyrone Power , Henry Fonda , John Carradine , Brian Donlevy , Donald Meek ; ¨The return of Frank James¨ (1940) by Fritz Lang with Henry Fonda , Gene Tierney , Jackie Cooper , Henry Hull , John Carradine , J. Edward Bromberg . Critics argued the best movie that had been made about the Younger-James brothers prior to this was ¨The return of Frank James (1940) , "in the historical sense it was also the least accurate, but it had a real sense of character truth". ¨I shot Jesse James¨(1949) by Samuel Fuller with Preston Foster , Barbara Britton , John Ireland , J. Edward Bromberg ; ¨The true story of Jesse James¨ by Nicholas Ray with Robert Wagner , Jeffrey Hunter , Hope Lange , Agnes Moorehead , Alan Hale Jr , Alan Baxter , John Carradine . ¨The long riders¨(1980) by Walter Hill ,the film stars four sets of actual brothers: the Carradines, the Keachs, the Quaids and the Guests with Dennis Quaid , Randy Quaid , James Keach , Stacy Keach , David Carradine , Robert Carradine , Ever Carradine , Christopher Guest , Nicholas Guest . And has been portrayed most recently in ¨American Outlaws¨ (2001) by Les Mayfield with Colin Farrell , Ali Larter , Gabriel Macht , Terry O'Quinn and ¨The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford¨ (2007) with Brad Pitt , Casey Affleck , Sam Shepard .

Regarded as a paraphrase rather than a real docudrama, this film does reveal some truths amid the fiction. Whatever one may think about the exploits of the James brothers and their various gangs, one cannot but have grave misgivings about the proto-fascist activities of Alan Pinkerton as the paid lackey of the railroad and banking interests in the post Civil War era. This "great detective" hired by the U.S. government to organise espionage against the Confederacy has been reliably reported as "manufacturing" most of the information submitted to President Lincoln.

The characters ascribed to the James brothers here is likely close to the truth, but why the contradictions of known facts. Their step-father Samuels was hanged by Pinkerton agents, not shot. Bob Ford, not Charlie, is the known assassin of Jesse James. This could have been a fine historical film, but some truth does emerge as initially said. The railroads and banks of the post Civil War era were proto-fascism at work in a very vicious form, and Alan Pinkerton was their "Himmler".

This film in my opinion is the best told story of the outlaw legends frank and jesse james. Rob Lowe gives and outstanding performance as jesse james and Bill Paxton gives, in my opinion , the best performance of his career as frank james.

Also watch for performances by Randy Travis as cole younger and William Atherton as the pinkerton man. This film keeps a great story line and Robert Boris does an outstanding job in the directing. Also, be sure to listen for the great music score and for some songs sung by Randy Travis. This rates on my top 5 favorite films of all time. It is a truly enjoyable film to watch.

Frank And Jesse is rated R for strong violence,brief nudity,and some mild language. Id just thought id go on ahead and tell ya.

As much as I keep hearing the mantra on here that the historical inaccuracies are forgiven if it is a good movie. Well, it is extremely inaccurate and it is not a good movie.

If you would like to make a western and ignore the majority of the facts, go ahead, just change the names of the characters and there will be no problem. Maybe it is because I live in the area that this movie is located, but it makes me cringe when I see Jessie's home as a two story mansion in St. Joseph when I have toured the actual home many times and the house is no bigger than my living room. The Northfield raid was horrendous with more inaccuracies and contrived stunts that seemed to be added to the movie just because they were filmed.

The acting was bad with Lowe looking like a glamor shots version of Jessie and Paxton alternating between playing Frank James as Frank James and Frank James as Doc Holiday. I give this movie a 5 just because it is a western and it could be a serviceable story if they would have just changed the names.

All in all, there were many times I was just itching to reach up and grab my 'The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Bob Ford' DVD and throw it in, but I waited to watch all of 'Frank & Jessie'. If you have the choice, just watch 'Assassination' again (which was extremely accurate and well written and acted), and you'll be better for it.