Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Moderate
- Complexity
- Easy to follow
- Violence
- Brutal
- somber
- restrained
- melancholic
- historical crime night
- serious movie night
What critics said
Critics broadly found the film well acted and convincingly grounded in period detail, but less entertaining and dramatically forceful than its famous subject suggests.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
The story follows Frank Hamer and Manny Gault rather than treating Bonnie and Clyde as its primary protagonists.
The retired Texas Rangers use tracking and experience in a deliberately grounded 1934 manhunt rather than relying on modern spectacle.
Hamer and Gault are contrasted with the FBI and emerging forensic methods while depending on instinct and fieldcraft.
The film presents the Bonnie and Clyde story from the law-enforcement side, counterbalancing romanticized outlaw portrayals.
Films like The Highwaymen, and why
bonnie and clyde
shared interwar crime setting, law-enforcement perspective, grounded period realism, and morally somber manhunt
public enemies
shared historical crime drama structure, procedural investigation, and restrained treatment of notorious criminals
j. edgar
shared true-crime subject matter, period detail, and tension between institutional power and determined investigators
the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford
shared aging lawmen, frontier-inflected crime story, and melancholic revisionist tone
Movie Details
- Director
- John Lee Hancock
- Release Date
- 2019-03-15
- Runtime
- 133 min
- Rating
- 6.8 / 10 (2308)
Cast
- Kevin Costner
- Woody Harrelson
- Kathy Bates
- John Carroll Lynch
- Thomas Mann
- Dean Denton
- Kim Dickens
- William Sadler
- W. Earl Brown
- David Furr
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is The Highwaymen about?
- Two aging Texas Rangers pursue Bonnie and Clyde through Depression-era America, trading modern forensic machinery for hard-earned instincts and relentless fieldcraft.
- What is The Highwaymen like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of The Highwaymen as measured, its intensity as moderate and its storytelling as easy to follow.
- Is The Highwaymen violent?
- Yes. Ember rates the violence in The Highwaymen as brutal.
- What did critics think of The Highwaymen?
- Critics broadly found the film well acted and convincingly grounded in period detail, but less entertaining and dramatically forceful than its famous subject suggests.
- Which films are like The Highwaymen?
- Films with a similar feel include bonnie and clyde, public enemies, j. edgar, and the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford.
- How long is The Highwaymen?
- The Highwaymen runs 133 minutes.
- Where can I watch The Highwaymen?
- In United States, The Highwaymen streams on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads.
