What I Watched -- The Highwaymen

S's dad and stepmom took a trip to San Antonio recently for L's birthday.  They commended to our viewing the (apparently quite historically accurate) Netflix-original film The Highwaymen.

I never knew much about Bonnie and Clyde.  I knew they were a couple of outlaws, and I think they robbed banks.  That was about it. 

Having now seen the film and done a bit of additional reading, I understand that they were adored by millions during the Great Depression, revered as Robin Hood types, although it's not clear that they ever did a whole lot of giving of the money they had taken.

In any case, Bonnie and Clyde are not the central figures of the movie (as its title suggests).  They are the objects, but not the subjects.  The subjects are two retired Texas Rangers, called back into service -- specially deputized as members of the Texas Highway Patrol, and specially tasked with capturing or killing the renegade duo.

Kevin Costner plays Frank Hamer, a historically controversial figure.  Accounts generally agree that the Rangers (a group which was originally formed primarily for border protection) was a terribly racist group, but some accounts indicate that Hamer did not necessarily share those beliefs.  He is almost universally acknowledged to have been a bit of a cowboy though, using unorthodox and often brutal methods of information extraction.  The latter is clearly portrayed in the film; the former is not addressed. His partner and comedic, smooth-talking sidekick in this adventure was Maney Gault, played by Woody Harrelson.  There is much less readily available reading about Gault (he doesn't even have a Wikipedia page!).  As for the actors, I was struck by how well they both, but Costner especially, played his age in the movie.  He wasn't trying to be some swashbuckling youngster.  He is old as an actor, and his character was old in the movie, and he uses that.

Bottom line: thoroughly enjoyable, and somewhat educational.