The Newton Boys (1998)

This was a pretty interesting based-on-a-true story account of a bunch of brothers who robbed more than 80 banks in the early 1920s. One thing for sure: it's better than the critics would have you believe. Oddly enough, it drags a bit near the end overall retained interest for most of the two hours. It is nicely filmed with good 1920s sets and music.

Matthew McConaughey is easily the star of this as the mastermind of the group, and he's the most interesting character of the Newton boys. He had a strange, funny smile in this role. I had to laugh out loud a few times looking at it. Some bad news: no one else here is likable and there is way too much usage of the Lord's name in vain.

I do agree with the critics that something is missing here, something that prevents it from being rated higher. Note: two of the actual robbers are shown in 1980 interviews, one on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson! In the other interview, the thief still sees nothing wrong with what he did! Amazing.

Fmovies: History is history and Hollywood is well...Hollywood. This is a fact-based drama that chronicles the exploits of the bank robbing Newton brothers(Matthew McConaughey, Vincent D'Onofrio, Ethan Hawke and Skeet Ulrich)who robbed over eight banks from Texas to Toronto in the 20's and 30's. Along with them a friend(Dwight Yoakam)who knew his way with nitro.This makes for exciting explosions on screen with clouds of money to go with gunshot blasts and whining getaway cars. The prolonged career in crime is capped off with a three million dollar mail train heist outside Chicago. This finally landed the boys in a court room and behind bars. By all means don't walk out on the closing credits for you get to find out what happened to each of the principle players. Also in the cast are: Julianna Margulies, Charles Gunning, Chloe Webb and Casey McAuliffe. There is the claim that the Newton boys never killed a soul during their robbing the bigger thieves...the banks.

"The Newton Boys" begins as an old movie, with old wasted colors, kind of black and white. This is the way we meet the players (what actually are the actors), and together with a very happy music (that also seemed old), the credits are simple; maybe boring. "If the movie is in black and white, I won't watch it", said my friend Matías. In fact, the movie started and it was in colors, and very nice colors by the way.

We see Willis Newton (Matthew McConaughey) and before we notice we are in Texas; with the horses, ranches, and the cowboys that always seem good people when they mostly do bad things. Maybe it is because we love to hear them talking, and the cast of this movie is very convincing in that aspect. Soon Willis encounters two younger guys, riding some difficult horses. These are Jesse and Joe Newton (Ethan Hawke and Skeet Ulrich), also cowboys and Willis' brothers. Now we're living the true story of the Newton Brothers.

With the help of Brentwood Glasscock (Dwight Yoakam), alias Glass, and later with the last brother Dock's (Vincent D'Onofrio) collaboration, Willis and his gang robbed a lot of banks and one train that got them to their end. Well, not their end because, unlike any regular cowboy, the Newtons reached ages surpassing the 70 years.

With his writing partners, director Richard Linklater created his adapted vision of the story, located in the pages of Claude Stanush's book. His own vision of these enchanting cowboys that made up stories to beautiful women, drank a lot and lived a full life. Stanush, Linklater and Clark Walter achieved something wild in terms of screenplay, because I'm not sure if a man could live the situations these characters experience, but who knows? In other cowboy movies like "American Outlaws" these things occur, and it's all about the characters. In "Outlaws" it was the excellent Colin Farrell, now it is a whole talented ensemble.

I'm a fan of Richard Linklater's work. And admirer of his camera, settings, colors...The respect he has for his colorful characters, without caring how surreal they can be at times, when he is telling a real story. Led by McConaughey's Willis (who makes a more charismatic leading man than Farrell), usual in Linklater's filmography, Ethan Hawke follows, in good shape as always; he commits more with Linklater than with any director. Then we have a gifted Skeet Ulrich in one of his most natural and charming performances; he isn't getting many jobs today, but here it was a great work. As always, Vincent D'Onofrio sticks to what is requested of him. It is also to notice Dwight Yoakam's efforts, in his most remarkable appearance; now I won't forget about him. Everyone else fulfills, and the women I was talking about, Louise Brown has an important part, played convincingly by the always good Julianna Margulies.

It was some weeks ago, that a friend of mine told me he did a work about a director's filmography. He had chosen Woody Allen. I hadn't done the work, but he asked me: "Who would you choose?". "Richard Linklater", I answered.

The Newton Boys fmovies. In the tradition of such as the James, Daltons, and Doolins of the previous century, the Newton Brothers who hailed from Uvalde, Texas were more in that tradition as they robbed banks and such throughout the middle part of the USA in the post World War I years. The Newtons are played by Matthew McConaughey, Skeet Ulrich, Ethan Hawke, and Vincent D'Onofrio. Watching them on the screen I kept thinking of that theme from the Dukes Of Hazard, "just some good old boys, meaning no harm".

Especially McConaughey who is the leader and brains of the outfit. He just oozes country boy charm. It serves him in very good stead when the Newtons are standing before the bar of justice. It also serves him well in courting Julianna Margulies who in that other country tradition stands by her man though she has to do some thinking on it.

Like the other family outlaw gangs of the west, the Newtons had their associates, though for them none like Bob Ford. Like the James Brothers they tried to switch to trains. It was that switch to trains that led to their downfall and a close call for one of the brothers. For the Newtons that train robbery was the equivalent of what happened to the James gang after the Northfield, Minnesota bank job. One of them nearly doesn't make it.

No one was ever killed during a Newton caper a fact that stood them in good stead at trial. The sentencing hearing with McConaughey is also outstanding.

I liked Vincent D'Onofio who is the most rebellious of the brothers. He'd be going the outlaw way even without family support.

The Newton Boys does very well in depicting post World War I in rural America. American agriculture after the boom of World War prices for food abroad and for the troops never shared in the Roaring Twenties boom for the city folk. This film depicts that fact very well.

The four players who depict the Newtons and the rest of the cast are set perfectly in their roles. One thing about the Newtons I have to say is that the film is done with style in the way they did their crimes.

How Richard Linklater made this film on such a small budget is a miracle in itself; the casting was inspired; but the inclusion of the clips of the real Newtons was pure genius. I read Richard's script a year or so before the film went into production, and I felt that this movie simply had to be made... I was right. With a little advertising money from the distributor, the film could (and SHOULD) have been a blockbuster. This is the film that defines the Texas film industry, and as a Texan, I'm proud of Linklater's effort.

In a way, it seems like a waste to gather Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Skeet Ulrich, and Vincent D'Onofrio for this movie, because they should've been able to do something great, although, if it weren't for them, it would have been boring. It is a straightforward assembly of the facts of the incredible run of 80 bank robberies by the Newton brothers. Then they go for the big one, a train robbery of Federal Reserve funds. It is entertaining, but I was most entertained during the running of the credits. Over to the left, they show clips of Joe Newton at about age 79, on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, interspersed with film clips of an interview with Willis Newton in his 80's, both giving their views of what it was like and how they felt about what they had done. After seeing Hollywood's version of their lives, it was interesting to see what they were like in old age.