The Highwaymen

The movie takes the approach of staying at distance from Bonnie and Clyde. Until the moment of their deaths (spoiler alert for an 85-year old nationwide manhunt!), we only see them from behind or at a distance. Mostly them sitting in a car, waiting for cops to drive up so they can kill them, or them actively shooting cops.

There's a fair amount about how people perceive them. Regard them as heroes, as someone to emulate or imitate. When they're noticed in one town, everyone flocks to their car like they're rock stars (even then we don't see the killers reactions to all this, except that they're willing to drive carefully as they leave, rather than peel and crush bystanders). It's a little bizarre to see, but I guess in the Great Depression one finds their amusement where they can.

The story isn't about them, but about Gault (Woody Harrelson) and Hamer (Kevin Costner), the two former Texas Rangers tasked with trying to bring them in, since all the cops, G-Men, and Ma Ferguson agents aren't getting anywhere. Their jurisdiction is not meant to extend outside Texas, but Gault doesn't really give a crap about that, and is usually able to enlist the aid of local law enforcement. I'm guessing because Hoover's guys are being high-handed jerks towards them. Jurisdictional pissing matches and whatnot.

The movie feels like it meanders in places. The second trip to Dallas, didn't really seem necessary. The only point is a conversation between Hamer and Clyde's father about how what people become isn't what they always were, or something to that effect. It felt unnecessary.

Gault is more interesting to me, because Harrelson plays him as a man more obviously tormented by his years as a Ranger, the lives he took. He gives him this air of fragility, his eyes are always red, like he's about to burst in tears or just got finished crying. Hamer is your sort of stock character who buries all of that under stoicism or anger. The guy who does what he thinks he has to at the time, and he'll deal with it after.

I have no idea how accurate either of the representations are of the two men in real life. The film says when the Rangers were reinstated a year or two later, Gault went back to them until his death 12 years later, but Hamer stayed retired.