Long unavailable and recently restored, this beautiful and engaging Canadian Western is based on the true story of the “Gentleman Bandit,” the cultured and well-mannered stagecoach robber Bill Miner (played lovingly by Richard Farnsworth) who finds he must quickly adapt to the twentieth century upon his release from San Quentin in 1901 after a thirty-three-year jail term. Miner’s affair with a politically progressive freelance photographer (Jackie Burroughs) in Kamloops, British Columbia, is handled with charm. Striking cinematography by Frank Tidy shows off the natural beauty of the British Columbian landscape and is accompanied by a toe-tapping soundtrack by the Irish group The Chieftains. Phillip Borsos’s debut feature won critical acclaim at international festivals and received wide US distribution thanks to American Zoetrope, helping it earn its reputation as a Canadian classic. Pauline Kael reviewed the film enthusiastically: “An inspired image-maker . . . Borsos replaces the familiar landscapes of Hollywood with his own interpretation of the Pacific Northwest. . . . The shots often have the stabbing eloquence of old photographs.”