This is a fantasy. Instead of telling a story about Frank and Jesse James, and the Cole brothers, all of which were bad people who robbed banks, trains, stagecoaches, and people in general--and murdered many. They are not heroes. They are villains. In this film, however, though many times described as doing horrible things and even shown as doing horrible things, they are painted as heroes.I can get over the inaccuracies. All movies have them. Some more than others but this one just seems to say, "Who cares?" -- and it doesn't. I am capable of separating the two and judging a film on the whole and rather than just nitpick it for certain things, such as historical accuracy.I can not picture Rob Lowe as Jesse James. Not even as I was watching it. And I thought perhaps that Bill Paxton could pull off Frank James but I was wrong. In the beginning I had hope for him but seemed as he played Frank as a clown.I won't lie and say there aren't good scenes but they don't make up for the rest of the film that is just overplayed, badly acted, and directed poorly.

As much as I keep hearing the mantra on here that the historical inaccuracies are forgiven if it is a good movie. Well, it is extremely inaccurate and it is not a good movie.If you would like to make a western and ignore the majority of the facts, go ahead, just change the names of the characters and there will be no problem. Maybe it is because I live in the area that this movie is located, but it makes me cringe when I see Jessie's home as a two story mansion in St. Joseph when I have toured the actual home many times and the house is no bigger than my living room. The Northfield raid was horrendous with more inaccuracies and contrived stunts that seemed to be added to the movie just because they were filmed.The acting was bad with Lowe looking like a glamor shots version of Jessie and Paxton alternating between playing Frank James as Frank James and Frank James as Doc Holiday. I give this movie a 5 just because it is a western and it could be a serviceable story if they would have just changed the names.All in all, there were many times I was just itching to reach up and grab my 'The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Bob Ford' DVD and throw it in, but I waited to watch all of 'Frank & Jessie'. If you have the choice, just watch 'Assassination' again (which was extremely accurate and well written and acted), and you'll be better for it.

The umpteenth retelling of the James gang story, Frank And Jesse is loaded with historical inaccuracies and blatant audience manipulation, but as a good old southern boy who still hasn't made peace with the Union, I'm suspending my BS detector and declaring this an awesome movie and one of the best westerns of the nineties!This is full of bloody shootouts and action packed escapes. Also, the period detail is much better than later independently produced westerns. My only problem is that all the best scenes are early on in the film and the rest of it suffers by comparison.Rob Lowe is probably the the last person I would have expected to star as Jesse James and I must admit I was a bit skeptical of him (translation: too pretty) but he did a good job portraying Jesse as an innocent youth pushed by the carpetbaggers and unforgiving northerners into becoming an avenger of southern pride and human dignity (the afore mentioned audience manipulation) before causing his own downfall through arrogance and carelessness.As Frank James, Bill Paxton gives an excellent performance that left me wondering why he hasn't been in more westerns.William Atherton and Luke Askew, as the villains, also stand out in this well cast movie.

This film in my opinion is the best told story of the outlaw legends frank and jesse james. Rob Lowe gives and outstanding performance as jesse james and Bill Paxton gives, in my opinion , the best performance of his career as frank james.Also watch for performances by Randy Travis as cole younger and William Atherton as the pinkerton man. This film keeps a great story line and Robert Boris does an outstanding job in the directing. Also, be sure to listen for the great music score and for some songs sung by Randy Travis. This rates on my top 5 favorite films of all time. It is a truly enjoyable film to watch.Frank And Jesse is rated R for strong violence,brief nudity,and some mild language. Id just thought id go on ahead and tell ya.