Philip Kaufman's first Hollywood feature was one of those neglected in studio distribution and left to emerge on its own, which it did, making several "best ten" lists and considered by many to be the finest of the new Westerns. In telling the story of the last, ultimately disastrous raid undertaken by the James boys, in which they trekked hundreds of miles to pull off a robbery on "the biggest bank west of the Mississippi," Kaufman demystifies the legendary gang with an exhaustively researched screenplay, a fast-paced, semi-documentary style, and an off-beat humor. With Cliff Robertson as Cole Younger, and Robert Duvall as Jesse James.