The Newton Boys (1998)

Touches You

As Good As It Gets

Absolutely Brilliant!

The acting in this movie is really good.

It's 1919 Texas. After three years of incarceration for stealing, Willis Newton (Matthew McConaughey) gets into robbing banks and recruits his brothers Joe (Skeet Ulrich) and Jess (Ethan Hawke) into the business. Joe is reluctant, wanting clean living. Brentwood Glasscock (Dwight Yoakam) is the explosive expert. They are joined by escape convict brother Dock (Vincent D'Onofrio). Willis takes a liking to single mom Louise Brown (Julianna Margulies).Director Richard Linklater is trying his hand at a different genre. He doesn't bring any intensity or edginess. It feels a bit lightweight. He's able to up his visual game but it's not good enough. It's almost a throwback to an earlier film era but it doesn't have the drama. These actors are all individually good. This could be a great movie if Linklater gets a darker edge.

The story of the Newton gang, the most successful bank robbers in history, thanks to their good planning and minimal violence.Although I am more well-versed than the average person on organized crime and the gangster era, I confess I had not heard of the Newton Gang prior to watching this film. This may be because they were from Texas, which falls outside of traditional history... but either way, this is a hole that needs rectifying.The film is excellent. Apparently reviews were mixed and it did not do very well, today considered one of Richard Linklater's failures. That is a shame, because it has a solid cast (even a rarely-seen Skeet Ulrich) and a fun, adventurous plot. Hopefully following the Oscar buzz with "Boyhood" (2014), people will go back and revisit some of Linklarer's work. It is not all amazing, but most of it is worth checking out.

This was loosely based on the "most successful bank robbers of all time". It was one of the many collaborations Matthew McConaughey did with director Richard Linklater. Much like all the film versions of Dillinger, The Newton Boys has car chases, bank robberies, explosions, partying, love triangles, etc. All the elements that add drama and excitement to a film that I enjoy. Again, this film was panned critically and commercially, but again I don't care. Everyone I've introduced to the movie too, has enjoyed it. There is a cool scene during the closing credits too which shows miscellaneous interviews with all the Newton Brothers featuring one with Johnny Carson and the youngest Newton Boy and the last living at the time of the interview in the early 80's. Reviewed by AN/NR 11-14-11

"The Newton Boys", Richard Linkletter's account on this family of criminals, was a surprise when it was shown on cable, recently. The strength of the story, which was co-written by the director, is based on a real family of bandits who never became as famous as other notorious criminals of the era. Perhaps, because they were basically farm boys, they never got involved in killing their victims, yet they manage to rob a string of banks that had a simple type of safe. Once bigger, and more complicated devices were adopted, it ended the way they did business.Willis, the brain of the organization, learns from someone he meets on the road when he leaves his rural home, how to blow a bank safe with the help of explosives. Willis, in turn, gets his three brothers involved in helping him for the different jobs throughout the middle of the country, and even in Canada. Willis, who falls in love with the attractive employee of a hotel news and tobacco stand, is a successful robber whose luck runs out when he tries his hand at robbing a train that is carrying about three million dollars, a fatal miscalculation on his part.The film is fun to watch because of the easy chemistry among all the brothers. Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Skeet Ulrich, and Vincent D'Onofrio appear to be having a great time with their characters and with each other. Joanna Margulies is a lovely Louise, the woman who falls in love with Willis. Dwight Yoakam is seen as the man who teaches Willis his trade as a bank robber.At the end of the film we watch one of the brothers appearing as a guest of "The Tonight Show" as he looked then. All brothers, it appears went straight after their brush with the law and lived long lives. Richard Linkletter did a film that is fun to watch as it is never heavy, and keeps moving at a quick pace.