The Highwaymen (2019)

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow have been portrayed as a romantic fugitive couple in dozens of films and TV productions. The Highwaymen looks at the same story from the perspective of those hunting them. The result is a quite different film. Rating: ★4.0. It is slow and weighty — and that weight is the film’s value.

What it’s about — Two Rangers who hunt the old way

Texas, 1934. The film opens with the notorious Bonnie and Clyde breaking out members of their gang from prison. Retired Texas Ranger Frank Hamer (Kevin Costner) is called back into service and, together with partner Maney Gault (Woody Harrelson), begins the pursuit. The two men track the criminals through old methods rather than FBI or modern investigative techniques.

Direction — A legend that grows larger when unseen

Director John Lee Hancock faithfully recreates the look of the American South during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Desolate dusty roads, poverty-stricken small towns, news filtering through the radio. Bonnie and Clyde remain almost entirely out of sight throughout the film — lost among the crowds who adore them. This choice is striking. The film shows that a legend grows larger when it cannot be seen.

Performance — The seasoned chemistry of Costner and Harrelson

Kevin Costner’s Hamer is a man of few words, stubborn, and uncomfortable with the speed at which the world is changing. Costner’s characteristically weighty presence fits this role well. Woody Harrelson’s Gault is the opposite — a character mixing humor with self-doubt — and the combination of the two is the film’s greatest pleasure.

What the film says — The victims erased by romanticization

Why did Bonnie and Clyde become heroes? Because to the poor during the Great Depression, watching them rob banks was a form of vicarious satisfaction. The film shows how that romanticism erases the actual victims of their crimes. Hamer and Gault are not heroes — they are simply old professionals. That unsentimental perspective is what distinguishes this film from other Bonnie and Clyde stories.

Ratings & reception

IMDb gives it 6.9. The Rotten Tomatoes score is 58% — middling. After its Netflix release it quietly accumulated good reviews. There were criticisms of its slow pace, but it has been steadily rediscovered by fans of Kevin Costner and viewers who enjoy westerns in spirit.

What falls short

The film is unambiguously slow. The climactic ambush scene is handled in a matter-of-fact style rather than with dramatic flair, which may feel somewhat anticlimactic to viewers expecting something more thrilling. Without prior knowledge of Bonnie and Clyde, the context can feel thin. The Rotten Tomatoes score of 67% reflects the divergence of views even among critics. The choice to barely show Bonnie and Clyde is intentional, but for some viewers that choice makes the film feel emptier. The two protagonists’ own interiors are not explored in great depth either. Costner’s Hamer maintains a consistent tone throughout, creating an impression of limited dramatic change. The fact that it was released as a Netflix original also means the 1930s period atmosphere that would have been felt in a theater is diminished on a small screen.

Verdict

If you want to see the Bonnie and Clyde legend through different eyes, this is precisely the film for that. Costner and Harrelson’s combination, the 1930s atmosphere, and the perspective that deconstructs the heroic myth are well integrated. The film’s sharpest moment is the scene of the crowd around Bonnie and Clyde’s bodies. The way people swarm over the two criminals’ corpses collecting souvenirs shows in a single shot how far the legend created by media is removed from the real harm caused. Hamer and Gault watch that scene as outsiders. The choice of telling a professional’s story rather than a hero’s narrative is most clearly visible in this moment. For viewers who want a historical film closer to fact than to spectacle, this is a satisfying work.

Recommended for

• Anyone who wants to see the Bonnie and Clyde story from a different point of view
• Viewers drawn to the combination of Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson
• Those looking for a slow but weighty crime pursuit film