For all its flaws, The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid is the kind of first movie so rich in texture and invention that we can look forward to a lot more from Philip Kaufman.

A lovely, odd sort of middle Western. That is, it's neither conventional Western fiction nor completely documented fact, although it makes full use of history and is as crammed with the artifacts of 19th-century America.

[The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid] may be a valiant attempt but fails to come off.

Kaufman presents his material with a comedic breeziness at considerable odds with its grim, grimy visual aesthetic.