1 Year After Joining Yellowstone, Kevin Costner Headlined Netflix’s Best Mystery Western of the Decade

After the success of films like Sicario and Wind River, Taylor Sheridan unleashed his instantly iconic neo-Western series Yellowstone, starring Kevin Costner as the tough rancher John Dutton. After decades of championing the Old West, Costner was right at home in the series, which focuses on a family defending their Montana ranch. However, just one year after the series began, he starred in another Western thriller in a brilliant Netflix original movie.

Since the days of movies like Silverado, Dances With Wolves, and Wyatt Earp, Kevin Costner has been the de facto modern face of the Western genre. With Clint Eastwood leaving the Old West behind after 1992’s Unforgiven, the actor has had little in the way of competition to dominate the West on film and TV. From his Hatfields & McCoys miniseries to headlining Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone, he’s proven himself America’s favorite cowboy, whether in the 19th or 21st century. Just one year after joining Sheridan’s hit drama series, he starred alongside Woody Harrelson to bring audiences a fresh, 1930s-set neo-Western crime movie. Netflix has produced a range of compelling original content, but 2019’s The Highwaymen stands out as one of their best films to date, despite being woefully underrated.

How The Highwaymen Grounded The Tale Of Bonnie And Clyde

Image via Netflix

The story of Bonnie and Clyde has been explored countless times by Hollywood, with the Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway movie being the most iconic. However, these stories almost always centered on the killers, sometimes going so far as to imagine them as a romantic Robin Hood couple of the Great Depression. In 2019’s The Highwaymen, this trend was reversed, instead shifting the focus to the two investigators who brought them down, Frank Hamer and Maney Gault. Throughout the film, the writer, John Fusco, makes a point of challenging the legend of Bonnie and Clyde, removing the more romantic vision of them from prior movies and shows.

The Highwaymen begins with the escape of Clyde Barrow from a prison labor camp, where his gang, Bonnie in tow, guns down his captors and drives away with him. In response to their escalating crime spree, the governor of Texas, “Ma” Ferguson, hires former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, who recruits his old partner, Maney Gault, to assist in the pursuit. Using their old-fashioned detective skills, the pair take to the open roads of the Deep South, hunting Bonnie and Clyde across several states. As they travel, they repeatedly have to deal with the myth that the criminals have conjured up about themselves, that they’re a veritable Great Depression-era Robin Hood couple. However, having murdered more blue-collar people than rich folks, nothing could be further from the truth.

When Hamer and Gault finally track Bonnie and Clyde to Bienville Parish, Louisiana, the home of one of the gang members. Teaming up with the local police, they set the stage for an ambush on the duo, luring them out onto a road in the hopes of forcing a surrender. However, seeing the pair reach for their own guns, the posse opens fire, filling the car and its passengers with bullets before the criminals can fire a single shot. Despite being satisfied that justice has been done, Hamer and Gault look on with shame and disgust as locals later swarm the vehicle as it’s paraded around the city of Arcadia. In this scene, the movie makes its message loud and clear: Parker and Barrow were common criminals, and didn’t deserve the fanaticism and adoration that both the public and media gave them. However, even today, that message rings hollow for many who still buy into their image as symbols of rebellion and counter-culture.

The Highwaymen Blends Western And Thriller Brilliantly

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Much like Taylor Sheridan’s neo-Western series, particularly 1923, The Highwaymen is a brilliant combination of the crime and thriller genres and a Western aesthetic. From start to finish, the film plays on the image of Hamer and Gault as Old West-style lawmen watching the new world pass them by. When they get back in the saddle, they bring their old-school skills and detective work to the table, proving themselves the toughest and most capable cops around. While the film does downplay the role of other detectives and agencies in the manhunt, it’s mostly true that the pair were pivotal in the downfall of the gang.

For people who love classic Western tropes, watching The Highwaymen is one of the most rewarding experiences there is, particularly knowing it’s based on a true story. The love of the genre is made clear throughout, but it’s not a work of fiction either. The reality is the manhunt for Bonnie and Clyde really did mirror the classic image of a frontier posse chasing down bandits and killers, two labels that fit Parker and Barrow to a tee. From the cops’ morally and legally dubious methods to the ending ambush, every element of the story would be just at home in an old-school Western as a 1930s caper.

The movie also does a fantastic job of exploring the dynamic and relationship between Hamer and Gault. Despite questioning his old partner’s sobriety to the point of not even letting him drive, Hamer nonetheless turns to Gault as the one man he can trust to get the job done with him. At virtually every turn, they both show that, despite their age, they’re as tough and capable as they come. When all is said and done and they’ve watched the death and frenzy over the criminals, their story ends with Frank trusting his friend enough to drive, signaling the rebuilt respect and friendship between them. For a pair of lawmen often sidelined in Bonnie and Clyde projects, seeing this relationship bloom across the story makes for a great character arc for them both.

How The Highwaymen Deconstructs The Legend Of Bonnie And Clyde

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From start to finish, it’s clear that The Highwaymen intend to set itself apart from other Bonnie and Clyde projects throughout the years. One of the most important ways it does this is through never actually showing the faces of the criminals, using perspective to effectively decenter them, even from scenes pivotal to their story. While Hamer and Gault are given the spotlight in most scenes, the audience is only shown glimpses of the criminals, typically showing them from behind to avoid giving them attention. Between Hamer and Gault’s commentary on the gang and letting the audience see their activities for themselves, the movie brilliantly peels back the romanticized image in favor of something darker and more truthful.

The film also makes a point of showing that, while those less familiar with Bonnie and Clyde might have worshiped them, those acquainted with them were far more grounded in their opinion. The script itself makes a point of highlighting the victims, too, ensuring that the audience isn’t tricked into the image of the criminals as targeting the rich during a period of economic desperation. The typical person murdered by them was less likely to be a wealthy banker than a gas station attendant or police officer. In fact, of their twelve murders, nine were law enforcement. Through showing these murders and how cold-blooded they are, the film leaves no room for any illusions about the gang as a champion of working people. Instead, it shows them to be straight-up murderers.

If anything else, The Highwaymen feels like an inversion of the iconic Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway Bonnie and Clyde movie. While popular culture had already been kind to the criminal couple for years, the 1967 film cemented audience impressions of them less as killers and more as misunderstood lovers caught up in a cycle of crime. Here, the crime duo were presented as symbols of the ’60s counterculture movement, written to be relatable and likable despite their horrendous acts. With A-list actors playing them and a script that represented them more as tragic antiheroes than anything else, the film was a divisive release at the time. In John Lee Hancock’s Netflix movie, everything about the ’67 film is rejected in favor of a dark mystery perfect for fans of shows like True Detective.

The Highwaymen Is Perfect For Yellowstone Fans

Image by Morena Perez Vitale

At a time when Kevin Costner is still riding high among Western fans for the Yellowstone series, it’s always worth remembering his other great projects. While many would be quick to point to movies like Horizon: An American Saga or Open Range, it’s hard to think of many of his films that are as great a match in tone and style as The Highwaymen. Combining the appeal of a true crime drama with Western tropes and an old-school, character-driven road trip, it’s one of the best representations of Great Depression-era criminals there is. Despite being one of the best “Public Enemies” gangster movies of the last decade, John Lee Hancock’s Netflix original is tragically underrated.

Since Clint Eastwood stepped away from the genre in 1992, Kevin Costner has successfully established himself as Hollywood’s biggest champion of the Western. This continues to be shown in series like Yellowstone, Kevin Costner’s The West, and Hatfields and McCoys. When it comes to his movie ventures, fans rightly praised Dances With Wolves, but The Highwaymen offers a fantastic true-crime story with a Western finish, and is a must-see for people interested in Bonnie and Clyde.