When I was going up, it was taken for granted that people watched re-runs of The Lone Ranger and long-running shows like Bonanza or Gunsmoke in syndication.
Those shows – along with the collected works of John Wayne – were unjustly regarded as corny, flag-waving middlebrow entertainment. The cultural elites had already begun to decide that the heroes of American history were a lot less heroic.
Still, there was a lingering bias in favor of American values, and so the westerns of the 80s created what one might call a more balanced picture – admitting the flaws but still admiring the virtues of the Old West.
The Long Riders is interesting because it presents a less than flattering portrait of the James Gang (and the associated sub-gangs) and also because it uses brothers to play brothers. The Carradines, Keaches, Quaids and Guests are well represented. I'll said this: it makes it easier to tell which characters are related.
The film itself is a combination of iconoclasm and residual tropes, with the latter chiefly coming from revolvers with endless amounts of ammunition.
Still, it does a good job of showing the complex motivations of outlaws, which did in fact include pure greed. I particularly enjoyed the heavily armed funeral service for one of the outlaws' younger brothers. The minister rightly noted that the government was just as capable of breaking the law as anyone else. Some things never change.
I'm not sure I would regard it is as something I'd like to see again, but it was a satisfactory way to spend an evening.
Chateau Lloyd 
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