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A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The unstated theme of this film is to dramatize the outlawry of William Quantrill(Brian Donlevy) in Kansas and western Missouri, primarily, and to suggest his influence on the subsequent criminal careers of Jesse and Frank James, the Younger Brothers and the Dalton gang, as an apparently cohesive buddy group within Quantrill's raiders. There is the initial conflict of purpose between Quantrill and Jesse(and the other members of Jesse's gang?). Jesse and friends joined Quantrill's band supposedly to take revenge on the lawless Red Legs(Northern bushwhackers) who victimized the James farm and that of neighbors who favored the South. But, Jesse soon discovered that, as reports claimed, Quantrill's raiders were primarily a brutal outlaw gang, who pillaged, burned and killed in the name of revenge for wrongs committed by the Red Legs and others. Only seldom were the victims of their attacks actual Red Legs. Jesse complains about this discrepancy and Quantrill falsely promises that he will mend his ways. As a result, Jesse threatens to quit, but doesn't see how his small friendship group can be very effective in accomplishing his purpose. Quantrill knows that he could not sustain the support of his group without plunder of 'ordinary folk', the burning and killing functioning as revenge for similar acts by Red Legs. Jesse gradually becomes hardened to Quantrill's ways.Kate(Marguerite Chapman), Quantrill's moll, has become disillusioned with Quantrill's methods, thus is attracted to Jesse(Audie Murphy)because of his seeming objection to Quantrill's brutal ways. However, gradually, Jesse accepts Quantrill's brutality and choice of victims. He unnecessarily kills Tate: Quantrill's 3rd in command, in a knife fight challenge. Then, he unnecessarily shoots dead the 2nd in command: Bill Anderson, in an altercation, making him now second to Quantrill. Kate periodically tries to convince Jesse to quit Quantrill, to no avail. At the end of the film, after Quantrill has died, when Jesse asks her to go with him, she begs out, foreseeing that Jesse and his gang will not likely quit their outlaw ways after the war is officially over.Hollywood film writers sometimes couldn't resist putting together icons of the old West or the Civil War in ways that had no or little historical basis. Thus, the team of the James brothers, the Younger brothers and Kit Dalton as a cohesive unit is a gross simplification of history. Even Jesse and Frank James sometimes went their own ways for a while. Another notorious example of this occurs in "Santa Fe Trail", where various future important generals in the Civil War were seen graduating in the same WestPoint class, and being assigned as a group to 'bloody' Kansas. Later, it becomes evident why this fiction was important in conveying the main point of the film(as I see it).There's plenty of 'action', beginning with the threatened lynching of Jesse's gang as suspected members of Quantrill's raiders(They weren't, yet). All the action involved in several raids on individual homesteads, as well as the massive raid on Lawrence, Kansas, in which the town was largely burned down. There's the knife fight between Jesse and Tate. Jesse gunned down several raiders, and here were several engagements with blue belly patrols. Most of the troops decide to desert after a series of costly skirmishes, and Quantrill's suggestion that they make a last stand until every man is dead. This is as sensible as his prophesy that the South could still win if Lee's army were transferred to west of the Mississippi. "Let the North win the battles. We'll win the war"(presumably by guerilla activity). Historically, his sizable 'army' did eventually split into several groups. In the film, only Jesse's friendship group remained loyal. In the film, Quantrill says he is heading to western KY to do some raiding. But, he never made it. Union troops surrounded his headquarters, first blinding him, then killing him when he walked out the front door with guns blazing, knowing that his time had come. Historically, he did go to KY, where he was ambushed by Union troops, a bullet in the back paralyzing him, with a lingering death....Various actors have played Quantrill in film. I rate Brian Donlevy as one of the best, aside from the fact that he was twice the age of the real Quantrill. He made a handsome oily villain in many a picture."Dark Command" is another film that features Quantrill, including the spectacular attack on Lawrence. It might be interesting to compare the two stagings of this event. See it in color at YouTube

Does anyone know where I can purchase this movie on DVD or VHS? My mother and I love classic movies and there are several titles, including Kansas Raiders, that she would like to have. Reasons she likes the movie are the setting (Civil War period), she likes Audie Murphy since she was growing up during WWII, when he was quite a hero, and she likes films about war and full of action. She would be grateful to hear from anyone who can help guide her in purchasing this film. I have looked everywhere on the web to find it and have been unable to and it has not been on TV or I would have taped it. If any collectors are reading this please reply through the message board at IMDb. Thank you.

AMC channel used to have a pretty good array of old movies. Apparently for what they regard as revenue purposes, ratings, etc., during daytime or prime-time hours, you're more apt to see the likes of "Jaws," "Conan...," or mediocre flicks (some from a "classic" year like 2004) - listed for the umpteenth time.For some reason, recently they seem to fill Saturday mornings with a lot of Audie Murphy oaters.Audie was a good-looking young man, and well-known as our most-decorated soldier from WW II. Regardless, Audie had the acting talents of, say, the average second- or third-lead in a 7th-grade parents' night play.I had never watched one of these Saturday flicks, but noticed this one when I turned-on the t.v. today, with Audie on-screen in Western attire, Tony Curtis with his Bronx accent, and identified, respectively as Jesse James and one of the Dalton boys.They escaped the clutches of some civilians about to lynch them, freed by a Union officer - soon to join Brian Donlevy, the notorious Quantrill, the "raider."I remembered something of Quantrill from a long ago school paper on the Civil War - but was curious to refresh my memory, and relate the facts to this film.This proved more entertaining than the film.At the time of the flick, Audie was 27 - in the story Jesse James would have been 16.Donlevy, in real life, was 49 - in the film, Quantrill would have been 24 or 25 (he DIED, after moving-on later, AT 27).The actress playing Quantrill's wife, Kate, was 33 at filming. In real life, at the time of the flick, she would have been 15 or 16 (Quantrill married her when she was 14 - she was a ripe old 17 when he died). There is no record of her having been at-odds with her husband's activity - or that she was romantic with Jesse (although as teens, they might have played a game of tag, or could have innocently played some "spin the bottle"). The film also contains two segments. among its most entertaining. When Donlevy "swears-in" Audie and Tony, plus their three young cohorts, to his band - it's not unlike Errol Flynn as "Robin Hood," explaining the mission to some recruits as he adds them to his group of "merry men." And later in the film, Donlevy's brief lecture to Audie about leadership and its demands is akin to George Scott's ("Patton") conversing about the same with Karl Malden (Omar Bradley) in the A-level Oscar film. Donlevy also points-out that Kate, as a "woman," cannot understand this. This is especially humorous, again realizing the real-life men would have been in their mid-20's and late teens, respectively, and Kate 15 or 16.You need some facts to view in contrast to the film to enjoy it even minimally -- although there is always at least a small measure of amusement in seeing these corny old Westerns which were often made during the 30's to 50's period.

Jesse James(Audie Murphy)joins Quantrill's raiders during the Civil War. Another Hollywood white-washing of James and historical fact. After all it is a movie. James and his brother Frank(Richard Long)along with a couple of Youngers, Cole(James Best)and James(Dewey Martin)join Qauntrill(Brian Donlevy)and his marauders in believe of saving the Confederacy by sacking Kansas. Lawrence Kansas is burned to the ground after the bank is robbed and citizens massacred. Jesse soon is sickened by the ruthless bloodshed and discovers that Quantrill has lost favor of Robert E. Lee and is nothing more than a demanding mercenary.The scenery is beautiful in spite of being filmed in Utah; and there is no way in hell that Utah landscape can be mistaken for Kansas. Other stars of note: Scott Brady, Tony Curtis, Marguerite Chapman and Richard Egan. Typical formula western that is really worth watching.