The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid is a 1972 American Western film about the James-Younger Gang. Distributed by Universal Pictures, it was written and directed by Philip Kaufman in a cinéma vérité style and stars Cliff Robertson. The film purports to recreate the James-Younger Gang's most infamous escapade, the September 7, 1876 robbery of "the biggest bank west of the Mississippi", in Northfield, Minnesota.
Contents
Plot
In the mid-1870s, outlaws Jesse James, Cole Younger and their brothers are granted amnesty by the Missouri legislature, sympathetic to the troubles created for all citizens by the American Civil War. The bankers victimized by the James and Younger gangs are vehemently opposed to this action and hire a Pinkerton agent to follow the outlaws' every move.
Younger has put aside plans to rob a bank in Northfield, Minnesota, said to be the largest west of the Mississippi River. The job appeals, however, to Jesse and Frank James, who have no intention of changing the way they make a living.
Cole is ambushed by Pinkerton's agents, who use a prostitute as bait. After the bankers succeed in having the amnesty overturned by bribing the speaker of the house, Cole travels by train to Minnesota to check out the bank.
Once there, Cole discovers that townspeople are unwilling to deposit their money in the bank owing to concerns over its safety from thieves. Jesse, Frank, and their men arrive on horseback and, together with Cole, persuade the locals that a gold shipment is on its way to the bank because it is supposed to be the safest possible place for it.
Once the citizens have banked their money, the robbery begins. Many things go wrong, though, including one outlaw being locked inside a vault, and two members of the gang are killed by the townspeople.
Teller Heywood, having discovered the "gold shipment" is bags of rocks, assumes Wilcox is part of the robbery and refuses to open the time-lock vault. The gang shoots Heywood dead and brutally beats Wilcox. In the street, local derelict Gustavson begins gibbering uncontrollably and the panicky gang lookouts shoot him dead, alerting the townspeople. Cole Younger and his men flee to a nearby farm, but a posse tracks and apprehends them, mostly due to Cole's refusal to abandon his wounded brother Bob. The James brothers get away. When Jesse mentions to Frank his intention to permit Bob Ford to join the gang back in Missouri, his fate is sealed.
Production
The film was shot in Jacksonville, Oregon.
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 73% of 11 critics' reviews are positive.