markwilsonseymour

It turns out that the story is actually based on history; on 7 September 1876, the James and Younger gang did attempt to rob the First National Bank in Northfield, Minnesota. Why did a dozen Civil War thugs ride all the way from Missouri to Minnesota to rob a bank? (That's over 500 miles, not a trivial distance on horseback.) Because they'd heard, correctly, that Adelbert Ames had an account there. And why would that matter to them? Because Adelbert Ames had been appointed provisional governor of Mississippi in 1868 and, among other unpopular acts, he appointed the first black office-holders in state history. The James boys, if nothing else, had long memories, and hated Ames still, nearly ten years after the end of the war.

I saw this movie in Stockholm the year it came out. I haven't seen it since, but I can remember many scenes vividly: that is a memorable movie. In addition to an ahead-of-his- time visual sense, the director added a feature, multiple subtitles, that I have never seen in a subsequent movie. Not just one or two languages, but every language spoken by the characters in the movie. That means Swedish, English, French, Spanish, Chinese... All appear stacked at the bottom of the screen (yet, amazingly, you can still see the action), minus whatever language is on the sound track at that moment; thus, the list shifts constantly as different actors speak. A little disconcerting at first, but it adds so much to the multicultural impact of the film. I hope someone brings it out on DVD.