The Newton Boys (1998)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Richard Linklater

Writers (WGA):

Claude Stanush (book)
Richard Linklater (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

27 March 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | History | Western

Tagline:

History is about to catch up with America's most successful bank robbers.

Plot:

Four Newton brothers are a poor farmer family in the 1920s. The oldest of them, Willis, one day realizes...

Plot Keywords:

Train | 1920s | Bank Robber | Courtroom | Ragtime

Cast

Matthew McConaughey	...	Willis Newton
Skeet Ulrich	...	Joe Newton
Ethan Hawke	...	Jess Newton
Gail Cronauer	...	Ma Newton
Vincent D'Onofrio	...	Dock Newton
Jena Karam	...	Orphan Singer
Julianna Margulies	...	Louise Brown
Casey McAuliffe	...	Orphan Singer
Dwight Yoakam	...	Brentwood Glasscock
Charles Gunning	...	Slim
Regina Mae Matthews	...	Orphan Fiddler
Becket Gremmels	...	Lewis
Lew Temple	...	Waiter
Glynn Williams	...	Farmer Williams
Charles 'Chip' Bray	...	Bank Teller

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence including bloody aftermath of a shooting, and for language.

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | South Korea:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Mexico:B | Netherlands:12 (video premiere) | Singapore:PG | UK:15 | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Austin, Texas, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

In the movie, the Texas Ranger who arrests Jess Newton is Frank Hamer. The real Frank Hamer planned and participated in the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Brentwood and Joe watch Erich von Stroheim's Greed (1924), in Canada, during what appears to be summer. Greed was not released until December of that year, and didn't see any wide release until late January of 1925. It's also doubtful that it would have made it to Canada any time before then.

Quotes:

Dock Newton: Where the hell were you, you yellow bastard? You didn't fire a shot!
Brentwood Glasscock: I'm not supposed to fire a shot! YOU'RE not supposed to fire a shot! We're supposed to be BACKUP Willis!
Jess Newton: You back up any further you'd be in Chicago!

Movie Connections:

References Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Soundtrack:

Guide Us to Thy Side

Tremendous cast, good, but not great, historical narrative

In a way, it seems like a waste to gather Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Skeet Ulrich, and Vincent D'Onofrio for this movie, because they should've been able to do something great, although, if it weren't for them, it would have been boring. It is a straightforward assembly of the facts of the incredible run of 80 bank robberies by the Newton brothers. Then they go for the big one, a train robbery of Federal Reserve funds. It is entertaining, but I was most entertained during the running of the credits. Over to the left, they show clips of Joe Newton at about age 79, on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, interspersed with film clips of an interview with Willis Newton in his 80's, both giving their views of what it was like and how they felt about what they had done. After seeing Hollywood's version of their lives, it was interesting to see what they were like in old age.