Made of Myth

By JAY COCKS

THE GREAT NORTHFIELD, MINNESOTA RAID

Directed by PHILIP KAUFMAN

Screenplay by PHILIP KAUFMAN

The outlaws in this movie are born of history but made of myth. Jesse James is crazy, a killer by blood and pleasure. Cole Younger, equally deadly, is shrewder, less skittish. Both are bandits who become political heroes, leaders of a gang of irregulars who ride through Missouri warring against the new railroad that is appropriating the farm land.

The movie's action springs from an 1876 vote by the Missouri house of representatives to give full amnesty to Cole, Jesse and their assorted brothers and buddies. The house speaker, bribed by the railroad, decides that the entire motion is out of order. This sits fine with Jesse (Robert Duvall), who fancies his "guerrilla raids," but Cole (Cliff Robertson) wants the pardon. To raise money for a counter-bribe to the speaker, the gang sets off to rob a bank in the small town of Northfield, Minn. Cole knows for a fact that the money is waiting for them inside the vault. He has seen it in a vision.

Director Philip Kaufman, here making his first major feature, serves up an eccentric, erratic mixture of subdued imagery, flamboyant dialogue and down-home movie corn. The movie remains a series of set pieces never made whole, and the ending invokes a facile and familiar irony. The yarn about "that last great raid" contains echoes of many other films and film makers, most markedly Arthur Penn (The Left Handed Gun, Bonnie and Clyde) and Abraham Polonsky (Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here). Those are two decidedly congenial influences, however, and Kaufman has the ingenuity to spoof and comment on them and other sources even as he takes advantage of them.

He has a whole baggage-car load of deputies riding the rails after Jesse and Cole, led by Alan Pinkerton himself and clearly modeled after the superposse in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The difference is that this posse never does make any real headway. The deputies seem to spend all their time glowering and oiling their rifles, and when the train finally stops, Jesse and Cole are never in the neighborhood.

An economical film maker, Kaufman never dawdles over an image. His editing is deliberately ragged, setting up the equivalent visual rhythm of a high-spirited, rough-edged folk song. Both Robertson and Duvall are a pleasure to watch in their roles. 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.

Jay Cocks

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