Movie Review: The Long Riders (1980)

Genre: Western  

Director: Walter Hill  

Starring: James Keach, Stacy Keach, David Carradine, Keith Carradine, Robert Carradine, Randy Quaid, Dennis Quaid, Pamela Reed  

Running Time: 99 minutes  

Synopsis: After the Civil War, the James-Younger gang is fueled by Confederate resentment and embarks on a crime spree in Missouri, holding up banks and trains. Jesse and Frank James (James and Stacy Keach) lead the gang, with support from Cole, Jim, and Bob Younger (David, Keith, and Robert Carradine). Clell Miller (Randy Quaid) stays with the gang even after his brother Ed (Dennis Quaid) is kicked out. In-between heists the men seek domesticity and the company of women, including Cole seeking comfort with prostitute Belle Starr (Pamela Reed). But as their list of victims grows, Pinkerton detectives descend onto the area to stop the gang's activities by any means.

What Works Well: Based on actual events, this is a stylish, lyrical, and violent chronicle of the famous outlaw gang. Actual Hollywood brothers portray the Jameses, Youngers, Millers, and Fords (Christopher and Nicholas Guest), with Stacy Keach as Frank James and David Carradine as Cole Younger emerging as the most grounded and charismatic characters. In the quieter scenes the script excels at filling-in the men's personalities, allowing human emotions to surface but never resorting to heroic portrayals. With the botched Northfield, Minnesota bank raid a stunning highlight, director Walter Hill and cinematographer Ric Waite deliver exceptionally gripping action scenes infused with stuntwork, slow motion, and no shortage of blood. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The production quality deserved a longer running time to more fully define the era and round-out more characters.

Key Quote:

Cole Younger: When this is all over, I'm goin' to write a book; make myself more famous than I already am.

Frank James: I trust you'll give me a copy.

Cole Younger: Nope. You gotta pay, Frank; you gotta pay.

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Movie Review: Lone Wolf McQuade (1983)

Genre: Action  

Director: Steve Carver  

Starring: Chuck Norris, David Carradine, Barbara Carrera  

Running Time: 108 minutes  

Synopsis: In El Paso, JJ McQuade (Chuck Norris) is a Texas Ranger and martial arts expert, unwillingly teamed with the inexperienced "Kayo" Ramos (Robert Beltran). JJ meets the alluring Lola (Barbara Carrera), who is in a relationship with shady businessman (and also martial arts expert) Rawley Wilkes (David Carradine). A violent weapons heist in the area draws the attention of the FBI's Agent Jackson (Leon Isaac Kennedy). Despite initial tension, JJ, Kayo, and Jackson team up to investigate, leading to a showdown with Wilkes.

What Works Well: In a bad movie with much to love, the sheer audacity of teleporting peak Spaghetti Western vibes into modern-day Texas has to be saluted. A few sunbaked shots are epic (including McQuade in full-glory silhouette), and the overblown Francesco De Masi music score does not leave a single Morricone note behind. The final showdown between McQuade and Wilkes is a bone-crunching legend, only surpassed by the jaw-dropping spectacle of McQuade (with beer in hand) and his truck emerging from the grave. The supporting cast includes Western stalwarts R.G. Armstrong and L.Q. Jones.

What Does Not Work As Well: All the writing, acting, staging, and plot points land with the tinny clang of cringey low budget incompetence, and the attempts at a romance between Norris and Carrera are awkward enough to be simultaneously hilarious and tragic. McQuade punches, kicks, or shoots a deserving target seemingly every minute of every day.

Key Quote:

Jackson: It's like somebody doesn't like you McQuade.

McQuade: I make a few enemies here and there.

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Movie Review: Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)

The second part of Quentin Tarantino's ultimate revenge fantasy is more cerebral and less feral. Kill Bill Vol. 2 completes the story with rewarding intensity, the focus shifting from large-scale mayhem to personal mutual fury and passion between The Bride and Bill.

The Bride, now identified as Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman), continues her quest for revenge. In flashback the massacre at her wedding rehearsal is more fully recounted, revealing that she and Bill (David Carradine) were lovers. Beatrix was pregnant with Bill's daughter but had left him and abandoned her profession of assassination to try and establish a normal life. She settled for the clueless Tommy as her husband-to-be. Picking up the revenge story, she now goes after Bill's brother Budd (Michael Madsen), who is broke and living in a remote desert trailer. But warned of her likely arrival after the events of the first film, Budd is ready, gets the jump on Beatrix, buries her alive, and steals her Hanzo sword.

In flashback again, the story of Bill arranging for Beatrix to be trained at the hands of master warrior Pai Mei is presented. Back to the present and while Beatrix is extricating herself from her premature grave using the skills learned from Pai Mei, Budd is arranging the sale of the sword to former colleague Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah). But the two killers turn on each other, and Beatrix arrives to mop-up. This leaves Beatrix with nothing between her and Bill: she tracks him down and arrives at his house for a final showdown, only to be surprised by an unexpected domestic scene.

Compared to Vol. 1, the second instalment settles down to a slightly more traditional pace, with a more rational, story-intensive approach.  While Vol. 1 was cultivated carnage in which not even The Bride's name was necessary, Vol. 2 fills in the gaps. The relationship between Bill and Beatrix is fleshed-out, the crucial minutes before the wedding party massacre receive eloquent black and white treatment, and Beatrix's training at the hands of Pai Mei is gracefully woven into her battle for freedom from a grave.

Finally Beatrix and Bill do meet, and it's an encounter that is more about emotional cleansing than physical violence. After all the spectacular death that was required for Beatrix to arrive face to face with Bill, their climactic meeting is a struggle of former lovers now and forever bonded by life. The confrontation will only be resolved with the unanticipated application of a lesson from the deep past.

Uma Thurman is again impressive with a brisk presence, and this time her performance is less about destructive external physicality and more about defeating her inner demons. Beatrix is a woman coming to terms with all of her life's meanings and mistakes, Bill helpfully injecting her with a truth serum so that she doesn't even lie to herself. Killer, lover, and mother, Beatrix comes to the realization that she can be any one but never all three, and Thurman allows the vulnerabilities of a ruthless killer to emerge as she races towards the biggest decisions of her life. Over the course of the two movies, Thurman's was deserving of the highest accolades, and although ridiculously ignored by the Academy Awards, she did garner two Golden Globe nominations.

David Carradine adds a dose of sanguine pretentious paternalism to the role of Bill, while Daryl Hannah and Michael Madsen are eager adversaries lining up against Beatrix - and each other. The large cast of Kill Bill Vol. 2 also includes small roles for Bo Svenson and Samuel L. Jackson as members of the ill-fated wedding party.

Tarantino floored the accelerator in Vol. 1. In Vol. 2, he eases back on the throttle and demonstrates deft handling to conclude the absorbing revenge story at an irresistibly human scale.

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