Cinematheque: Anti-Westerns

(US, 1972, 35mm, 91 min., Directed by Philip Kaufman) The first Hollywood feature from director Kaufman (The Right Stuff, Hemingway & Gellhorn) is a revisionist western with a fresh take on the legendary James/Younger gang. As their outlaw band of thieves plan and execute the fateful bank robbery in the title town, Jesse James (Duvall) is depicted as a slow-witted degenerate, while Cole Younger (Robertson) is revealed to be the brains of the operation.