Frank & Jesse

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".

You know, I always find myself tutting and shaking my head after viewing a film about the infamous outlaws, Frank & Jesse James. Not because of the quality of each film, which ranges from good to awful over the years, but because of the tired old statements about accuracy that scream out from critics both amateur and professional. I'd be screaming too if the makers of film's such as this one proclaim it to be " thee" true story of the James boys, but since no publicity about such things like "facts" was to be found, I was able to venture into a mid 90s Western with no expectation of historical accuracy and hopefully be entertained by a movie that follows more the myth of the men than the reality. And entertained I was too.

Frank & Jesse stars Rob Lowe as Jesse James and Bill Paxton as Jesse's brother Frank James. The story picks up following the Civil War where the two brothers, recently stung by the senseless murder of their younger brother, hook up with the Younger brothers - Cole Younger (played by Randy Travis) and Bob Younger (Todd Field), Bob Ford (Jim Flowers) and Charlie Ford (Alexis Arquette), Clell Miller (John Pyper-Ferguson), and Arch Clements (Nick Sadler), and start to fight back against the Chicago railroad investors. They set off on a trail of crime, robbing banks, trains and enacting stage holdups whilst evading the dogged pursuit of Allan Pinkerton (William Atherton) and his detective agency. But as Jesse's fame grows on account of an adoring public led by the press imagery of the man, so the gang get closer to being caught, or worse still, killed.

Directed by Robert Boris, Frank & Jesse was a limited release in 1994/95. Tho obviously a TV movie In all but name, it does however boast a more than admirable cast. Lowe, in spite of looking uncomfortable on a horse, looks the part and proves to be a good casting choice. His cocksure way about him fits nicely into Jesse's shoes, whilst the goatee beard steers one away from seeing the "pretty boy" actor instead of the character. Paxton is always solid and reliable, and no change here, with one naked bathroom scene an absolute delight. It's a scene that sees Frank meet his future wife Annie, here played by Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, and Western fans will note that that pairing sees the actors re-teamed after appearing together in Tombstone 1993. Of the others, Travis stands out as the most believable of the support rogues, while Nick Sadler quietly gives the best performance in the movie as Arch Clements. A fine young actor who can be checked out in the likes of Twister, Disclosure, Scent of A Woman, & Mobsters.

The writing is safe, if a touch too cliché riddled and hurt by some dialogue that doesn't belong in the time, while the action scenes are more than up to scratch. Notably a shoot out at Northfield, Minnesota, that's as good as anything in the afore mentioned Tombstone. Walt Lloyd does a good job with the cinematography, some nice hues used for the town sequences, tho your eyes may be dragged away by Mark McKenzie's score as it is unable to fully grasp the mood at times. But by and large there's more than enough here for the Western fan to enjoy. Unless of course you need a wall to wall history lesson in your Oaters that is? 6.5/10

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.

I'm a huge fan of the likes of The James, Doc Holliday, Wild Bill, Billy The Kid, and Wyatt Earp. This was a great movie, I really enjoyed it. But I still have questions for authenticity. At the very beginning of the movie, Jesse standing there swearing allegiance to the Union, Jesse & Frank road with Bloody Bill Anderson many years after the end of the Civil War, tried surrendering to Union forces and was shot at. Then we have Arch Clements with his speaking problem, which he did have very authentic...only problem of course is that he died before the Civil War ended. Then I don't recall Bob Younger being deaf, no mention that Zee was his cousin and named after his mother, Cole didn't have to shoot Bob they were both caught along with John Younger after the Minnesota robbery cause they were all three caught alive. And of course they have the wrong Ford killing him at the end. And despite what it depicts, they hardly robbed from the Rock Central Railroad, they only robbed them maybe twice. Most of there jobs were Express Trains.

I don't know why they had to change facts, did having Arch Clements in it make it a better movie, was having Bob deaf a better character. Did his death instead of capture make for a better movie. And why not have the real Ford brother acknowledged, and maybe show his deal with the government. Jesse James life could have made a great movie without all the changes. Don't get me wrong I still loved the movie, just don't feel it was very accurate. I'm sure there are many more flaws, I just can't remember much of them now.