The Newton Boys

Infobox Film
name = The Newton Boys


caption = Theatrical release poster
director = Richard Linklater
producer(s) = Clark Walker
Anne Walker-McBay
writer = Claude Stanush (book)
Richard Linklater
Clark Walker
starring = Matthew McConaughey
Skeet Ulrich
Ethan Hawke
Vincent D'Onofrio
Julianna Margulies
Dwight Yoakam
Charles Gunning
music = Edward D. Barnes
cinematography = Peter James
editing = Sandra Adair
distributor = 20th Century Fox
released = March 27, 1998
runtime = 122 minutes
language = English
imdb_id = 0120769

"The Newton Boys" is a 1998 dramatic film based on the true story of the Newton Gang, a family of bank robbers from Uvalde, Texas. The film stars Matthew McConaughey, Skeet Ulrich, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Dwight Yoakam. It was filmed in Austin, Bartlett, and San Antonio, Texas.

ynopsis

Over the course of five years (1919-1924) the Newton Boys, a group of brothers, were the most successful bank and train robbers in North America, traveling from Texas to Toronto without ever firing a fatal gunshot. Willis Newton is the eldest brother who is determined to improve the fortunes of the family by becoming a "businessman" whose business is bank robbing. With the rationale that all banks are insured — insurance companies being the biggest crooks — the brothers begin their spree. By 1924, they executed the biggest mail train robbery in American history, stealing 3 million dollars from a train in Rondout, Illinois (a Chicago suburb). All goes smoothly until Brentwood Glasscock accidentally shoots Dock Newton. Going against the odds, they decide to take Dock to a doctor. The court trial that follows sees the boys and their partners sentenced to prison.

Rondout Robbery

In commemoration of the robbery that occurred in Rondout, Illinois, there is a historical marker, which reads:

:The Rondout Train Robbery.

:On June 12, 1924, one of the largest train robberies in U.S. history occurred near here. Bandits who boarded the train in Chicago forced postal clerks to surrender sacks containing more that two million dollars in securities and cash.

:Local police apprehended the gunmen within a few days. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case and identified the masterminds, one of whom was a trusted employee of the Postal Service. Some of the loot was never recovered.

:In all, eight men were convicted in Federal Court, and sentenced within seven months of the robbery.

:Erected by the Libertyville-Mundelein Historical Society, the Lake County Museum Association, and the Illinois State Historical Society, 1981.

Background

*In the movie, the Texas Ranger who arrests Jess Newton is Frank Hamer (The real Frank Hamer planned and participated in the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde). But actually it was Harrison Hamer who arrests Jess Newton. Harrison is the brother of Frank Hamer. Both were Texas Rangers. The historical Willis Newton claims to have hidden out Bonnie and Clyde during their short career. He considered them "silly kids" who "shot people and ran from place to place" and held a dim view of their reputation as professional criminals.

*While on location for this project, Dwight Yoakam wrote the songs he used for the album "The Long Way Home".

*All three writers, the director, producer and two highest paid leads (Matthew McConaughey and Ethan Hawke) along with most of the production crew are native Texans, making this the most expensive production about Texas by Texans until arguably 2004's "The Alamo".

Goofs

*Brentwood and Joe watch Erich von Stroheim's "Greed" (1924), in Canada, during what appears to be summer. Greed was not released until December of that year, and didn't see any wide release until late January 1925. It is also doubtful that it would have made it to Canada any time before then.

*There is a scene that was one of the scenes in San Antonio Tx, shot on Ashby Street, a block away from San Antonio College, which features a yellow house on the across from the Temple Beth-El. An air-conditioned unit can be seen sticking out of the side of the house, as it is today. Obviously AC units weren't around back then.

In interviews the improbability is explained by the writers as the following: The screenwriter's original intention was to make a visual joke of the date discrepancy and thus suggest that this was an early test screening of a full version of the lost film. The scene was written to hint that a famous missing nude shot from a sequence where Pitts disrobes and gets into bed with her gold lottery winnings is still intact for this screening. (Film buffs know the negative to the complete version of Stroheim's film was burned before general release.) In the shooting script the Brentwood Glasscock character seems only to recognize Zasu Pitts, a fellow native of Parsons, Kansas after she takes her clothes off. Presumably he has been watching several hours of her performance already, hence the humor.

In the Toronto scene, the scandalous shot was to seemingly play while we are watching the bank robbers look at the screen, complaining about the length of the film. Using existing footage, the audience would see Zasu pouring her gold into bed as she begins to take off her robe. Then there was to be a cut to a shot of Brentwood, finally recognizing her in her altogether as the shot played on his reaction. After that the camera cuts back to her pulling up the covers in bed, the nudity having been suggested by actor Yoakum's performance and the length of the matching action. During principal photography the scene and dialog was shot to reflect this inside joke, using a blank screen which would later be composited to show the movie clips. However, in editing and visual effects stage the original elements to the Stroheim sequence were deemed too damaged to use, and thus the shots needed to make the humor play as intended had to be substituted for a more benign shot of Pitts looking out a window. Ironically, the negative of the disrobing had been damaged by too many frame stills having been taken of the near-scandalous bits, and possibly the censor's scissors when the film was truncated by the studio. Because of the dialog, the film makers were locked into using shots from Greed, and the Hawksian humor was lost and only the historical coincidence remained.

External links

*imdb title|0120769
*tcmdb title|443644