The Highwaymen Dvd

The Highwaymen is a 2019 American period crime drama film directed by John Lee Hancock and written by John Fusco. The film stars Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson as Frank Hamer and Maney Gault, two former Texas Rangers who attempt to track down and apprehend notorious criminals Bonnie and Clyde in the 1930s. Kathy Bates, John Carroll Lynch, Kim Dickens, Thomas Mann and William Sadler also star.

The film had been in development hell for many years, with producer Casey Silver looking into the project as early as 2005. Originally pitched by Fusco as a possible Paul Newman and Robert Redford project, the film began development at Universal Pictures but never came to fruition. In February 2018, it was reported Netflix had picked up the rights to the film and that Costner and Harrelson would star. Filming took place later that month and in March, shooting around Louisiana and at several historical sites, including the road where Bonnie and Clyde were killed.

The Highwaymen had a limited theatrical release in the United States on March 15, 2019 before being released digitally on March 29, 2019 on Netflix.

Plot

In 1934, after two years on the run, criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow break several associates out of Texas’ Eastham Prison Farm. Texas Department of Corrections Chief Lee Simmons persuades Governor “Ma” Ferguson to hire former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer to track down the criminals. Reluctant to leave retirement and his wife Gladys, Hamer joins the manhunt after the fugitive gang is involved in a devastating shootout in Missouri, and he recruits his former partner, Benjamin Maney Gault.

Information from FBI wiretapping of the fugitives’ families leads Hamer and Gault to conclude that Bonnie and Clyde are returning “home” to Dallas. Watching Bonnie’s mother’s house, they see a man throw a bottle into her yard, which is soon thrown back, but a boy escapes with it. Dismissing the Rangers’ theory, the FBI believe the fugitives are in Brownsville. Hamer and Gault meet with Dallas Sheriff “Smoot” Schmid, who introduces them to Deputy Sheriff Ted Hinton, a childhood friend of Bonnie and Clyde who can identify them on sight. The gang kills two policemen in nearby Grapevine; Hamer and Gault investigate the scene and determine that Bonnie has a rabbit, which Hinton suggests is a present for a family member.

The Rangers drive to Oklahoma and question a gas station attendant, who declares his support for the criminals. Hamer assaults the man into admitting the gang passed through en route to a migrant camp, where a local girl confirms the gang stayed. A radio bulletin alerts the Rangers to two more murdered officers but, being outside their jurisdiction, they are barred from passing the police roadblock, which a frustrated Hamer drives around. They continue to Coffeyville, Kansas, correctly guessing that Bonnie and Clyde will stop there for supplies. As the Rangers move in on the fugitives, an adoring crowd surrounds the criminals’ car. Hamer and Gault give chase, but Bonnie and Clyde escape through a dirt field.

Learning that Clyde had breakfast in Amarillo, the Rangers return to Dallas to find the rabbit has been delivered to Bonnie’s family. Hamer meets Henry Barrow, Clyde’s father, who affirms that his son must be stopped. The Rangers have Simmons furlough Wade McNabb, an incarcerated associate of the gang, hoping to draw them out. While Hamer interrogates McNabb at a bar, Gault is threatened in the restroom by thugs sympathetic to the gang, but subdues them. Learning that Bonnie plans to meet a hairdresser the next day, the Rangers surveil her mother’s house again. A man throws another bottle into the yard, which is retrieved by the same boy but intercepted by the Rangers; it contains a message that the gang are heading elsewhere. Realizing McNabb warned the gang, the Rangers visit his home and discover him beaten to death.

Simmons recalls Hamer and Gault to Austin, but they return to their theory that “outlaws always go home”, predicting that the fugitives are going to Bienville Parish, Louisiana, home of gang member Henry Methvin’s father, Ivy. Searching Ivy’s house, the Rangers find evidence of the outlaws’ recent stay. They join forces with local Sheriff Henderson Jordan and Deputy Prentiss Oakley to confront Ivy; in exchange for his son’s safety, he reveals that the gang will soon return. The lawmen are joined by Hinton and Dallas Sheriff’s Deputy Bob Alcorn, and Gault tells them of his first deployment with Hamer: they killed a gang of bandits, including a fleeing 13-year-old boy. Ivy informs them the gang is arriving the next day, and the posse prepare an ambush on the road to his house, staging his truck as if it has broken down.

Bonnie and Clyde arrive, stopping to assist Ivy, and Hamer orders them to raise their hands. Instead, the criminals prepare to draw their own weapons, and are gunned down. The bullet-riddled car with Bonnie and Clyde’s bodies is towed to Arcadia, Louisiana and mobbed by onlookers. Refusing $1,000 for an interview with the Associated Press, Hamer and Gault drive home.

Cast

Kevin Costner as Frank Hamer
Woody Harrelson as Maney Gault
Kathy Bates as Miriam “Ma” Ferguson
John Carroll Lynch as Lee Simmons
Thomas Mann as Deputy Ted Hinton
Dean Denton as Deputy Bob Alcorn
Kim Dickens as Gladys Hamer
William Sadler as Henry Barrow
W. Earl Brown as Ivy Methvin
David Furr as Detective John Quinn
Jason Davis as Agent Kendale
Josh Caras as Wade McNabb
David Born as Sheriff Henderson Jordan
Brian F. Durkin as Deputy Prentiss Oakley
Emily Brobst as Bonnie Parker
Edward Bossert as Clyde Barrow