MOVIE REVIEW: The Highwaymen (2019)
Here is yet another “Reluctant Hero” movie, except this can be classified as a “Reluctant Anti-Hero” story as well.
Kevin Kostner is Texas Ranger Frank Hamer (a real person) and Woody Harrelson is Maney Gault (also a real Texas ranger who lived during the 1930s).
Hamer has retired from his old job of tracking criminals together with Gault and is now working for a good chunk of money in the private sector. He is our Reluctant Hero and Gault is his sidekick without whom we cannot understand the background story.
As they keep talking throughout the story we hear who they are, where they are coming from, and what still keeps them awake during some nights of the year.
Since the structure is based on Joseph Campbell’s “Hero with a Thousand Faces” paradigm of mythology, we also need a wise Yoda, a guiding spirit, to stand by our hero against all resistance to do his job. And that spirit is John Carroll Lynch as Lee Simmons, Texas Department of Corrections chief.
Despite Governor “Ma” Ferguson’s (played by Kathy Bates) objection, Simmons stands by Hamer and Gault for a good reason: all attempts to catch Bonnie and Clyde have failed. The notorious duo keeps robbing banks and killing cops and innocent bystanders alike in a wide swath of real estate circling Texas.
