Frank & Jesse (1995)

At the end of the Civil War, Frank and Jesse James and other former guerillas who rode with Quantrill and Bill Anderson take the oath of allegiance to the Union. Feeling oppressed by ... See full summary »

Director:

Robert Boris

Writer:

Robert Boris

Stars:

Rob Lowe, Bill Paxton, Randy Travis

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rob Lowe	...	Jesse James
Bill Paxton	...	Frank James
Randy Travis	...	Cole Younger
Dana Wheeler-Nicholson	...	Annie
Maria Pitillo	...	Zee
Luke Askew	...	Lone Rider
Sean Patrick Flanery	...	Zack Murphy
Alexis Arquette	...	Charlie Ford
Todd Field	...	Bob Younger
John Pyper-Ferguson	...	Clell Miller
Nicholas Sadler	...	Arch Clements (as Nick Sadler)
William Atherton	...	Allan Pinkerton
Tom Chick	...	Detective Whitcher
Mary Neff	...	Widow Miller
Richard Maynard	...	John Sheets

Storyline

At the end of the Civil War, Frank and Jesse James and other former guerillas who rode with Quantrill and Bill Anderson take the oath of allegiance to the Union. Feeling oppressed by Chicago railroad investors, the James and Younger brothers, Bob and Charlie Ford, Clell Miller and Arch Clements take to robbing banks, trains and coaches, with Pinkerton sworn to bringing them to justice.

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Plot Keywords:

historical event | gunfighter | colt .45 | main character dies | male in bathtub | 

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Taglines:

The civil war made them outlaws. The people made them heroes

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Genres:

Biography | Western

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong western violence

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 April 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

Frank e Jesse

Filming Locations:

Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Trimark Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Even though, in the film, Jesse's home is shown as a big two-storey house, the original house is in fact much smaller and was located in town. However, the actual house still stands, but has been moved three times to its current location, next to the Patee House in St. Joseph, Missouri. The final scene with Jesse, the chair and picture is exactly how it happened according to Bob Ford. In the original house, there is still a dent and blood stain on the floor where Jesse fell.

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Goofs

When the wounded Jesse James falls into the arms of Frank at the fireplace a microphone is visible on the top of the screen.

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Quotes

Frank James: Grab a horse dingus.

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Connections

Referenced in Buttcrack (1998)

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Soundtracks

"The Way He Is"
Music, Lyrics and Performed by Randy Travis

User Reviews

Don't let facts get in the way. It's still a great movie!

The umpteenth retelling of the James gang story, Frank And Jesse is loaded with historical inaccuracies and blatant audience manipulation, but as a good old southern boy who still hasn't made peace with the Union, I'm suspending my BS detector and declaring this an awesome movie and one of the best westerns of the nineties!

This is full of bloody shootouts and action packed escapes. Also, the period detail is much better than later independently produced westerns. My only problem is that all the best scenes are early on in the film and the rest of it suffers by comparison.

Rob Lowe is probably the the last person I would have expected to star as Jesse James and I must admit I was a bit skeptical of him (translation: too pretty) but he did a good job portraying Jesse as an innocent youth pushed by the carpetbaggers and unforgiving northerners into becoming an avenger of southern pride and human dignity (the afore mentioned audience manipulation) before causing his own downfall through arrogance and carelessness.

As Frank James, Bill Paxton gives an excellent performance that left me wondering why he hasn't been in more westerns.

William Atherton and Luke Askew, as the villains, also stand out in this well cast movie.