The Highwaymen | SXSW 2019 Film Review

In recent years, true crime – be it documentaries, podcasts, or docudramas – have captured our attention in a way so many other forms of entertainment fail to. There is something uniquely fascinating about obsessing over the finer details of a crime. Partly because it’s the one aspect of life Joe Average will never take part in (most of us are not criminally inclined), and partly because of our morbid curiosity of all things tragic. These days, though, sympathy for the victims is the name of the game: modern society loves to cast out the aggressors. But it wasn’t always this way. In fact, there was a time when criminals like Bonnie and Clyde were seen more as folk heroes, rampant outlaws out to avenge the common man. And The Highwaymen aims to set the record straight.

In the 1930s, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker had taken their spot as those aforementioned folk heroes. During the Great Depression, Americans had grown to hate big business, and Bonnie & Clyde were robbing those big money banks, sticking it to the man in a blaze of gunfire. The truth was far more sinister: these two – and the various members of their gang – were sadistic murderers, willing to viciously kill anyone – noble or otherwise – who bothered to step in their way.

Their legendary mystique proved difficult to wade through, as the general public often sheltered and protected these two, making it near impossible for authorities to bring them down. So in a time of crisis, Governor Ma Ferguson (Kathy Bates) sanctions legendary retired Texas Ranger Frank Hamer (Kevin Costner) with the task of bringing down Bonnie and Clyde in any way possible. Hamer grabs former associate Maney Gault (Woody Harrelson), and they hit the highways searching for the most wanted criminals in America.

The Highwaymen is more a thriller than docudrama, therefore prepare for several inaccuracies (for example, Maney Gault didn’t join Hamer until later in the investigation), but the overall story is fairly accurate. The main purpose with John Fusco’s screenplay is to scrub away the illusion that Bonnie and Clyde were some enigmatic pairing of anti-heroes; these are awful people who murdered numerous innocents in pursuit of their own selfish motives. And this, the film handles mightily. Too often, though, scenes find themselves saddled down with long periods of gestation on days gone by clichés and pontification on the end of the “take no prisoners” age of lawmen.

Throughout the film, director John Lee Hancock’s lens only affords ample screen time to the criminals themselves when all hell breaks loose. Hancock shoots each of their on-screen crimes either from the neck down, obscured, or from a distance, carefully posturing the two as less-than-characters. It’s an effective tool that does wonders in keeping our inner sympathies at bay. By never seeing their faces clearly, it remains easy to stay on Hamer and Gault’s side, regardless of our affinity for the classic tale starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Hancock also manages to capture the pristine beauty of Texas vistas, highlighting John Schwartzman’s blistering cinematography while hanging lovingly onto the horizon, in a way many filmmakers would effectively gloss over.

You can’t teach old dogs new tricks, and Costner and Harrelson certainly don’t need to learn any here as these two gel well together. Costner’s Frank Hamer comes across as Eliott Ness if he wanted those damn kids off his lawn. This character has become the “Costner Special” in recent years, showcasing that the actor has a knack for quiet lawmen. That steely-eyed gaze, the cold resolve, it’s all here and you’ve seen it before.

Woody Harrelson brings few surprises either, but he does carry the emotional baggage of the film. Harrelson’s Gault is a loose cannon, a drunk with a lost soul, but it’s in his eyes that this world, and The Highwaymen as a whole, comes to life. There is always a little something hiding behind Harrelson’s eyes, a glint of heart and purpose, and there is a scene when he comes across Bonnie Parker’s dress – and surmises her tiny frame – that saves The Highwaymen from its clinical narrative. In this moment, we finally see that Bonnie and Clyde are human, and Maney Gault has just realized he will have to murder a young woman to end their spree. In a lesser actor’s hands, this is an empty moment, but Harrelson has a natural gift for assigning heart to the heartless.

Overall, The Highwaymen is an effective thriller, beautifully shot along American landscapes. Costner and Harrelson do what they do best, overcoming an occasionally cliché ridden script with their entertainingly unlikely partnership. Most importantly, by the end of the film, the myth and mystique of two legendary outlaws has finally been laid to rest.