"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" Review - Written by TonyD

“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”
2007
**** out of ****
Director: Andrew Dominik
Cast: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Mary-Louise Parker


And just after I watched one of the shittiest movies of 2008 (“First Sunday”), I catch up on a 2007 film that I didn’t particularly enjoy on the first watch. “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” is probably one of the longest titles for a movie, and some may consider that the movie is even longer. Usually I would say that a movie at two hours and forty minutes is too long, but for a film like “The Assassination of Jesse James” is actually too short. I think that as long as a movie is fantastic and never loses steam, a film like “The Assassination of Jesse James” should go on for as long as it possibly should.

Reportedly, there is a four hour version that was excellently received. I want to see that version.

I know I said that the first time I watched the film I didn’t love it as much as I do now. It’s not that it is a bad movie, but aside from great performances and a great cinematographer, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” is more of a character study than a plot driven film. We all know who Jesse James is by the pop culture. Some follow by the morals of Bob Marley, but I follow by the morals of Jesse James, though if the man had not had morals, he certainly had the courage of an outlaw, which is enough for anyone to respect and follow. The amazing portrayal by Brad Pitt was nothing short of perfect. I thought that after the second watch, the movie is northing short of perfect.

“The Assassination of Jesse James” follows Jesse James (Brad Pitt) through the last month of his life. After Jesse James’s gang took their separate ways, Jesse James suddenly finds no more meaning to his life. He decides to give up being an outlaw and promises to become a family man… after one last robbery that is. He takes in the aide of Charles Ford (Sam Rockwell) and his younger brother Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) to help him stage the robbery.

Robert has always been a big-time fan of Jesse James, so much that his addiction to the tales of Jesse James from childhood became more than just addictions, but more so dreams of meeting the outlaw. But Robert’s relationship with Jesse James may be more complex than it seems. He feels that James is bully and he deeply resents him. So instead of aiding Jesse James and helping him commit the robbery, Robert and Charles decide to help the other side of the law. In order to collect ten thousand bucks, Robert Ford decided to help the Missouri Governor by killing Jesse James. I just spoiled it for you, but I’m sure that you can look it up in a history book (or in the title) and get a better and simpler description of the film.

Normally, I wouldn’t let a film like this get to me as long as it did, but I let it get to me. The first time I watched it, like most critics, I found it pretty slow and boring. Being described as a “Western,” it had no aspects of a Western other than one or two scenes. In my eyes, last year’s “3:10 to Yuma” remake was a classic Western film that I’m sure many will look back even in a few years and consider that to be one of the greatest Westerns of all time. But instead of it being a full-throttle action packed Western, the film turned out to be a riveting character drama. Even by the end of the film, it is hard to not respect the villain for what he has done.

Other complaints I read about the film is that it is too long? Really? So you can sit through “The Return of the King” five times (which is more than forty minutes longer when I’m just talking about the theatrical cut) but you can’t sit through THIS? Is it too slow for you, or do you really have taste. I found so many things that could have easily been cut out of “Return of the King” after two watches. By the time I finished watching this for the second time, I’m still stumped. You can’t take anything out of the film to make it any shorter. I’m telling you, it’s near perfect.

But the greatest part about “The Assassination of Jesse James” is that the main characters never fail to realize that Jesse James is a celebrity in his time and place. Instead of being played like a longer “Bonnie and Clyde” or “Natural Born Killers,” Jesse James doesn’t try to rub it in about being a celebrity. He feels like that he is just like everyone else, but doesn’t feel the need to rub it in that he is so much more powerful than everyone at the same time. After Robert Ford kills Jesse James by the end of the film, he doesn’t like to portray himself as a celebrity, but rather than a villain.

And that is the way that we look at Robert Ford – not as an anti-hero, but a straight up villain. He plays it calm throughout the entire movie and never loses a grip of what he sets out to do. Once he kills Jesse James, expecting to become the celebrity that James once was, he doesn’t kill the celebrity status of James: he kills every last hope of becoming a celebrity. He becomes easily the most hated man in that time period, travelling around stage after stage to show how he killed Jesse James.

Brad Pitt easily plays the greatest role of his career. Surely you all know about how I have the utmost respect for Tyler Durdan, but his role in “The Assassination of Jesse James” easily takes the cake. His portrayal of Jesse James as a celebrity is overwhelming. Which leads me to talk about Casey Affleck, in his best performance to date. The man sure has had one hell of a year, but nothing beats his role in here. I read a review awhile back that claims that most of the dialogue is mumbled, and it is clear to me that the reviewer didn’t “get it.” The dialogue was really mumbled because both actors understood what was going on. James knew that there was something fishy about Ford, but he kept quiet about it and decided not to question. He decides that he just doesn’t care anymore about being a celebrity, which explains about killing and torturing his previous gang members.

The last half hour of the film is more driven than the rest of the film. One character is already gone and the other one just doesn’t know how he can live with himself after what he has done. “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” is more complicated than what the usual film-goer is used to. It is not a film that would appeal to a general audience, but would rather show itself just how much more intelligent of a Western it could be. It took over two years to release this ten-worded-title film into theaters, and it was a wait that was well spent.