During the years following the Civil War, banks and trains become the targets of the James-Younger gang, who terrorize the Midwestern United States.

After getting antsy during a bank robbery, Ed Miller opens fire and kills the clerk, resulting in a shootout where Jesse is wounded.

Rixley doggedly remains on their trail, accidentally killing a Younger cousin and the youngest James brother, and losing several of his men in the process.

Jim Younger, who initially courted a girl named Beth, is disturbed to find her engaged to Ed.

Clell Miller suggests the James-Younger Gang ride north in September 1876 to rob a bank belonging to "squareheads" in Northfield, Minnesota; word is out about them and the town has been warned by the Pinkertons.

Two outlaws are killed, Clell is fatally shot, Frank is hit in the arm, and all of the Youngers are badly wounded.

The play was then adapted into a country musical, The Bandit Kings, and performed off-Broadway at the Bowery Lane Theatre.

[1][7] The brothers rewrote the material into screenplay form and combined it with the work of Bill Bryden, who had his own Jesse James script.

In June 1976 it was announced the film would star the Keaches as the James brothers, the Carradines as the Youngers, and Beau and Jeff Bridges as the Fords.

[11] In June 1977 it was announced the film would be called The Bad Guys[12] Randy and Dennis Quaid also became attached to the project to play the Miller brothers.

[13] James Keach later recalled, "Everyone told me, 'You can't get all these guys together; family devotion is one thing, but this is Hollywood.'

There's a kind of an idyllic quality that surrounds the shooting of them, it seems like a more fundamental film process, more to me what movies are about than clearing crowds off a city street.

"[15] Hill called the film a "strange piece"; Instead of the logical conclusion being at Northfield, it then goes on to another phase of a spiral downward, and ends with Jesse's death.

"[17] Joseph Bottoms had discussed the project with James Keach but wanted himself and his brothers to play the Youngers – parts already reserved for the Carradines.

"[18] Walter Hill later argued that the best film that had been made about the Younger-James brothers prior to this was The Return of Frank James.

The Main street of Leary was covered with dirt to hide the asphalt road, along with many of the store fronts being modified to look "authentic" to the times.

[20] "The company originally wanted to shoot in Missouri, but they found that urban sprawl just blew that out of the tub," said a publicist.

[21] The ravages of the years have not touched the buildings and it closely resembles Northfield, Minn., in 1876," said Gene Levy, the production manager.

[24] Cooder said Hill had heard one of his records while making the film "and thought that my music had an atmospheric quality he was looking for.

Walter likes scores to be part of his movie’s environment instead of the factor that’s driving it, and I’ve always looked at film music as an environmental issue.

[28] Cooder later said this was "the simplest" of his soundtracks to do, adding that: I’d heard and played enough old time-Southern music that it wasn't too much of a stretch for me to create it.

The website's consensus reads: "With its pared down storytelling, The Long Riders delivers with an evocative atmosphere and artful brutality.

"[29] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

[30] Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote of the film, "Even its languid moments hold a certain fascination, what with Ric Waite's handsome photography and a cast that Noah might envy.

"[32] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post declared that the film "seems a flawlessly felt and visualized western, true to the subject matter and the aspirations the filmmakers probably held for it.

[5] According to Film Comment it made $5,891,149 in the USA, in part due to "a terrible campaign that emphasized how alike all the players looked without exploiting the family theme that might have aided box office.

"[34] In June 1981 James Keach wrote a letter to the Los Angeles Times in response to an article on the poor box office performance of Westerns.

Keach claimed The Long Riders "wasn't a Star Wars at the box office" but recouped its full $9 million investment and earned United Artists a profit.

[35] Stacy Keach wrote in his memoirs that "I believe to this day that the movie made money even though the studio claimed it only broke even.

He said when he was in Arkansas making a TV series "so many people came up to talk about The Long Riders which had been shown there on cable that I got enthusiastic again.