By MIKE HUDSON
THE ROANOKE TIMES

Archives Reprint

   In the early minutes of "American Outlaws," a dirty line of Confederate infantry trudge along a dusty road. Their beards are scraggly. Their sweaty hair looks like it's been slicked back with bacon grease, just like real Civil War soldiers.

    Just then, Jesse James and his pals ride up, fresh from a swashbuckling defeat of a vastly superior force of Yankees. Their beards are shaved down, stylishly stubbled in the current movie-star manner, and their hair has that just-gelled look. Are their ribs sticking out from four years of war and starvation diets? Please. They look like they've been working out on Soloflex machines.

    My point is this: Don't expect this tale of the James Gang to bear much resemblance to real history or the real story of the outlaws who robbed their way to folk-hero status in the post-war West.

    This version of Jesse and Co.'s story is full of bright, fresh faces, prompting some critics to call it "How the West was Young" or "The Cast of Friends Goes West." There's Colin Farrell as Jesse; Gabriel Macht as his brother, Frank; Ali Larter as his wife, Zee; and Scott Caan as his partner in crime, Cole Younger.

    They look and act more like a boy band than a band of outlaws. They whine and fight with each other over who gets to be the star of the show (and the best Wanted -poster likenesses).

    But if you can get past that, it's not a bad action-adventure flick. Just not a great one. The shoot-out scenes generally make sense, at least until the end, and the hard-driving soundtrack and camera work are first-rate.

    The bigger problem, however, is with the story line that casts the James Gang as Robin Hoods who were driven to crime by evil railroad bosses and murderous Pinkerton detectives.

    In fact, Frank James and Cole Younger gained a taste for blood much earlier, riding with the band of Missouri rebels who sacked Lawrence, Kan., in 1863, killing more than 150 residents, most of them noncombatants.

    After the war, the James-Younger Gang murdered at least a dozen people in about two dozen stagecoach, bank and train robberies. "American Outlaws" glosses over that - alluding to one offscreen killing by having a gang member say nobody would get hurt "if people would just hand over the money."

    And what happened to the money? The movie has Jesse sharing the cash with his Pinkerton-plagued neighbors. Yeah, right. Western historian Dale L. Walker has written there's no evidence any of the loot was distributed anywhere except among gang members: "Jesse James stole from the rich and the poor and kept the proceeds."

    But, hey, if you want history, go to the library. If you want entertainment of the shoot 'em up variety, this'll do.

    As long as you like your entertainment slick and mindless. And with a dab of hair gel.

    MIKE HUDSON can be reached

   at 981-3332 or mikeh@roanoke.com

    American Outlaws

    HH

    A Warner Brothers release showing at Carmike 10 at Tanglewood Mall and Valley View Grande 16. Rate PG-13 for violence. Ninety-five minutes.

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