There are two reasons I watched The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid: Robert Duvall and Luke Askew. I like Lucas-Q as a character actor and of course, any Robert Duvall film is working a look. Unfortunately Luke Askew--playing Jim Younger--doesn't have a speaking role and spends the entire film with a cloth over his face to hide a terrible wound. Robert Duvall is adequate but he really chews the curtains in some of the scenes to such a degree it's almost embarrassing to watch. I don't imagine Duvall ever watches this movie. There is some terrible looping of the Pinkerton detective's dialogue, too. Overall, the film suffers from poor writing and budgetary limitations. The greatest drawback is the film doesn't have a position on anything. It sort of meanders around, padded in parts with pointless scenes, until the inevitable (and lackluster) climax and that's about it. Interestingly, one of the prostitutes is played by Valda Hanson, who was one of Ed Wood's stock actors.
