The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972)
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63% of critics liked it
(8 reviews) -
45% of users liked it
(369 ratings)
The oft-told story of the rise and fall of the James Younger gang is given the Dragnet treatment in The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid. With meticulous attention to detail, the film recreates the outlaw gang's most infamous escapade: the September 7, 1876, robbery of "the biggest bank… More The oft-told story of the rise and fall of the James Younger gang is given the Dragnet treatment in The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid. With meticulous attention to detail, the film recreates the outlaw gang's most infamous escapade: the September 7, 1876, robbery of "the biggest bank west of the Mississippi" in Northfield, MN. Cliff Robertson plays Cole Younger, and Robert Duvall appears as Jesse James, herein depicted as a pair of vengeance-driven sociopaths, but no worse than the greedy railroad magnates who've driven them into a life of crime. Younger is also quite the manipulator, convincing the immigrant farmers of Northfield that the bank is completely impervious to robbery, thereby increasing the deposits that he intends to steal. Duvall's Jesse James is a cold-blooded murderer, but, like Younger, not without his own personal charm. The climactic raid is filmed cinéma vérité style, looking more like a haphazard CNN news event than a well-oiled machine (this film is not, thankfully, the standard "slick" Hollywood product). Though it drags in spots, The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid is a superb, iconoclastic reproduction of an era long past. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Philip Kaufman
- Written By
- Philip Kaufman
- Genres
- Western, Action & Adventure
PG,
- In Theaters
- May 12, 1972 Wide
- Studio
- MCA Universal Home Video
Critic Reviews
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Jay Cocks, TIME Magazine
For all its flaws, The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid is the kind of first movie so rich in texture and invention that we can look forward to a lot more from Philip Kaufman.
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Vincent Canby, New York Times
A lovely, odd sort of middle Western. That is, it's neither conventional Western fiction nor completely documented fact, although it makes full use of history and is as crammed with the artifacts of 19th-century America.
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Variety Staff, Variety
[The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid] may be a valiant attempt but fails to come off.
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, Time Out
Interesting for its demonstration of how exploitative capitalism leads simple-minded farmers' boys into outlawry, though somewhat marred by Duvall's manic interpretation of the role of Jesse James.
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, Film4
Kaufman's own script never gels and the whole exercise, admirable as it is and enlivened by quirky decidedly unwestern like humour, fails to make much dramatic impact.
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Cast
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Cliff Robertson
as Cole Younger
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Robert Duvall
as Jesse James
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Luke Askew
as Jim Younger
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R.G. Armstrong
as Clell Miller
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Dana Elcar
as Allen
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Donald Moffat
as Manning
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Anne Barton
as Clell's wife
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Nellie Burt
as Doll Woman
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William Challee
as Old Timer
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Elisha Cook Jr.
as Bunker
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Royal Dano
as Gustavson
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Liam Dunn
as Drummer
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Marjorie Durant Dye
as Maybelle
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Robert H. Harris
as Wilcox
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Erik Holland
as Sheriff
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Herbert Nelson
as Chief detective
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John Pearce
as Frank James
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Arthur Peterson
as Jefferson Jones
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Mary-Robin Redd
as Kate
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Inger Stratton
as Singing whore
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Wayne Sutherlin
as Charley Pitts
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Barry Brown
as Henry Wheeler
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Matt Clark
as Bob Younger
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Jack Manning
as Heywood
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Madeleine Taylor Holmes
as Old Granny Woman
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Craig Curtis
as Chadwell
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Robert Gravage
as Farmer
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Bill Callaway
as Calliopist
