The Grey Fox

1983 "In 1901, after 33 years in San Quentin Prison, Bill Miner, "The Gentleman Bandit", was released into the Twentieth Century."
7.3| 1h32m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 18 March 1983 Released
Producted By: Mercury Pictures
Country: Canada
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Old West highwayman Bill Miner, known to Pinkertons as "The Gentleman Bandit," is released in 1901 after 33 years in prison. A genial and charming old man, he re-enters a world unfamiliar to him, and returns to the only thing that gives him purpose — robbery.

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Reviews

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Delight Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.
merklekranz "The Grey Fox" is a very likable character, who just happens to rob trains. Richard Farnsworth plays the gentleman bandit who after serving 33 years in prison for stagecoach robbery, easily converts his talents to robbing trains upon release. Eventually fleeing across the Canadian border from Washington State, he tries to blend into a small mining town. Being an enthusiastic teller of tall tales, he is thoroughly convincing in his new life. The Pinkertons somehow track him down, and once again "The Grey Fox" is on the run. Though enjoyable, the movie is not without fault. The editing seems extremely abrupt, as if the film was originally much longer, and has been severely chopped. Another drawback is the EP VHS from "Video Treasures" in no way does justice to the magnificent Canadian scenery. - MERK
don dutton Bill Miner, the "Gentleman Robber" robbed stages and trains from Arizona to British Columbia. This is a beautifully photographed and lyrical telling of his later career, fighting the law and the law winning.... for a while at least. Richard Farnsworth handed in a great and totally credible performance as the laid back but cunning Miner and his love affair with most interesting woman in Kamloops. All the characters are the real thing... no Hollywood veneer here. Great pace and photography- get it with John Sayles' Matewan and have an authentic trip back into time. Its' a pity that Phillip Borsos didn't live long enough to put out a few more of these.
eltroll This really is a masterpiece of film - and, unfortunately, largely unknown to the greater film-watching public in the United States. It is beautiful to watch, to listen to (with its soundtrack including both original work by award-winning composer Michael Conway Baker, of Canada, and the Chieftains), and to examine as a chronicle of the period that concluded the Wild West's grasp on the 19th Century and its reach for the 20th.Bill Miner, the "Gentleman Bandit," was a historical figure whose long prison term for stagecoach robbery left him entirely unprepared (vocationally) for his release back into society - a society that was now devoid of stagecoaches, and beginning to discover the wonders of motorcars and moving pictures.The 29-year-old director, Phillip Borsos (1953-1995), made this film tribute to the last outlaw of the Wild West and to the region that he lived in. While others might have gone heavy-handed and clichéd in such a production, Borsos' eye and ear both figure significantly in the film's direction, and its numerous examples of originality:a senior citizen star (the late Richard Farnsworth - whose Hollywood career had started as a stuntman, in Westerns - playing Bill Miner as a thoughtful and kind gentleman) who even gets to look hunky;a respectful treatment of an early 20th Century feminist (played by Jackie Burroughs);cinematography that highlights the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, rather than some anonymous California desert;a soundtrack that ISN'T Coplandesque (or Morriconesque);a 'cowboy picture' where the hero gets the girl, but doesn't get vulgar or trite or even testosterone-driven; ANDan accurate look at the turn-of-the-century a hundred years ago in a landscape that hasn't entirely disappeared. Yet.I have hummed the music from its tuneful soundtrack since the first time I saw it in its initial U.S. theatrical release, and have wanted to visit Kamloops, BC, ever since. If you can stand movies without gratuitous pyrotechnics or violence, don't let another day go by without checking out this film classic.
zpzjones This IMHO is the best western movie to come out after Josey Wales and before Pale Rider. It's even much better than that much lauded Dance With Wolves. This is a sort of low key Canadian made movie and it offered Farnsworth arguably his best role as star. The story concerns one Bill Miner, a train robber, since the the Civil War days. He's been locked up in prison since 1868 and is released from prison in 1901 just in time to be delivered into the 20th century. Bill is thrilled and awed by what he sees in 1901. The first motorcars, the earliest motion pictures, the phonograph. They all tell of the future. Although a robber and convict, Bill is a soft hearted guy perhaps mellowed with age and the years spent in prison. But he can still take care of himself such as one scene in a barroom when a bully tries to threaten him and Bill breaks a large bottle over the thugs head and then pointing the muzzle of his revolver in the thugs face. Unable to make ends meet financially he meets with a loser criminal named Shorty and they get into robbing trains and stealing again. Bill & Shorty go into hiding and the Pinkerton detectives are hot on their trail. Shorty & Bill are caught in the woods after Shorty panics while routinely being searched by the Canadian Mounted Police. Bill however manages to escape and goes on the lam. He later meets up with a woman who is an opera & arts enthusiast named Kate(Jackie Burroughs). She plays some Caruso on her phonograph while painting outdoors. She and Bill become lovers. Another person Bill befriends is a young rookie Police Sergeant. The young man, new to his job, tells Bill that the whole town is after Bill Miner. The only thing is that the sergeant doesn't recognize Miner & the older guy he has befriended as being one and the same. Great character study here. Finally, Bill is caught by those unceasing Pinkerton detectives and is led to the train station and to jail in a flamboyant manner for the whole town to see. This scene harks back to those seen in the old time westerns even as far back as to silent film westerns. At the end of the movie, actually behind the rolling of the credits, we see & read that Bill has gone missing or has escaped out of prison as of 1907. We're left wondering if Bill died in the Canadian Wilderness or somehow made it to Europe on the arm of an attractive lady. Quite possibly his lover Kate. Great Story. Nicely shot