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With: David Carradine, Keith Carradine, Robert Carradine, James Keach, Stacy Keach, Dennis Quaid, Randy Quaid, Kevin Brophy, Harry Carey Jr., Christopher Guest, Nicholas Guest, Shelby Leverington, Felice Orlandi, Pamela Reed, James Remar, Fran Ryan, Savannah Smith Boucher
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Written by: Bill Bryden, Steven Phillip Smith, Stacy Keach, James Keach
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Directed by: Walter Hill
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MPAA Rating: R
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Running Time: 100
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Date: 05/15/1980
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Oh Brother...
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Walter Hill directed this Western about the James gang, with real-life brothers playing the fictional brothers in the story. Sadly, the fairly unknown and uninteresting James Keach plays Jesse James, while Stacy Keach plays second-banana brother Frank (both Keach brothers worked on the script). Robert, David and Keith Carradine play the Younger brothers, and Randy and Dennis Quaid play the Millers. Finally, Nicholas Guest plays Robert Ford, while his more talented brother Christopher Guest plays the less interesting Charlie Ford. The casting problems aside, this is a fairly solid, but not particularly extraordinary film. See The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford for a truly exceptional example.
In 2011, Fox released a handful of MGM titles on Blu-Ray, including this one. It looks great, if maybe a little soft, in 1.85:1. There are optional subtitles and a trailer, but no other extras. In 2017, Kino Lorber released an updated two-disc Blu-ray version. I can't confirm whether it has undergone any remastering, but it still looks and sounds pretty solid, and Kino Lorber claims a "brand new 4K restoration." There is an 5.1 surround audio track, a 2.0 track, and a commentary track by film historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson. The second disc includes newish-looking interviews with Keith and Robert Carradine, Stacy and James Keach, Randy Quaid, Nicholas Guest, Walter Hill, composer Ry Cooder, and producer Tim Zinnemann. There's a feature-length making-of documentary and two short featurettes, as well as a theatrical trailer.
In 2024, Kino Lorber released another two-disc Blu-ray edition. It claims that it's the same 2017 4K transfer, but looks much better than I remember it, bright and detailed. Disc One includes the aforementioned commentary track and trailers for this and a few other Westerns. Disc Two contains all the interviews, the making-of documentary (63 minutes), and the two short featurettes ("The Northfield, Minnesota Raid: Anatomy of a Scene"; 16 minutes, and "Slow Motion: Walter Hill on Sam Peckinpah"; 7 minutes). Recommended.
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