buried treasure

the fifth of my Matthew McConaughey movies was The Newton Boys, which I watched this afternoon. I'd never heard of it before, but it seemed like my kind of movie. I love heist movies and I get plenty nostalgic for period pieces.

this one chronicles the adventures of some real life bank robbers from the 1920s. very Red Dead Redemption 2 meets O Brother Where Art Thou vibes. I did enjoy the film, though it is a little dull for a heist movie. or "thoughtful," or "meandering" as a few older reviews I looked at put it. the heists themselves are not the point-- it's all about the journey, they impulse, the risks and the consequences.

the opening scene comes with a subtitle indicating that we're on a ranch somewhere out in Uvalde, Texas. 

on seeing this, I immediately wondered whether McConaughey knew any of the original Newton boys. it seems plausible-- the youngest of the gang lived until 1988. I couldn't find any evidence to support such a theory, but I didn't try all that hard either.

like all good based-on-a-true-story films, this one ends with annotations about where the characters all ended up. the coolest tidbit there was: 

a hundred thousand dollar share of their last train heist, buried by Jess Newton somewhere around San Antonio almost exactly 98 years ago this week, has never been found.

after almost a hundred years, it probably never will be, I guess.

you can read more about the gang's legendary exploits here if you like. the video they include at the end is part of what we see in the film credits, which was really the best part of the whole thing. I bet my dad would love this movie at least a little bit.

 

for the record, here is the full list of McConaughey movies still ahead of me:

EdTV
Reign of Fire
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
The Paper Boy
Two for the Money
Failure to Launch
Fools Gold
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
The Lincoln Lawyer
Mud
Magic Mike
Dallas Buyers Club
Interstellar
True Detective (excerpts)
Sea of Trees
Free State of Jones
The Dark Tower
The Gentlemen
Serenity
and
The Beach Bum

Dazed and Confused, A Time to Kill, Contact, and Amistad are officially checked off. both Frailty and Wolf of Wall Street we've already seen somewhat recently, so they're not included. neither is a film I think I'll ever watch again, anyway.

should I set up a ranking? hmm. I don't typically believe in such things, but it could be interesting to judge these twenty-five pieces of art against each other. we'll see.