The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford by Shaun Berk

Call this what you will, an actual review written by yours truly, an essay, an analysis, whatever but I decided after seeing this again recently that I really wanted to post something on here.

In this movie, we have the very common story of Jesse James and his gang called the James Gang. The James Gang is a name that has been adopted a lot like with Joe Walsh's band and with the TNA wrestling tag team the James Gang which consisted of B.G. James aka Road Dogg Jesse James and Kip James aka Billy Gunn. There have been many movies made of him as well and I am sure one can find plenty of historical documentaries and books written on the man.

Just to elaborate for someone who might not know or care about history. Jesse James was an outlaw in the mid-1800s who lead a gang with his brother Frank. Their gang would rob many trains and banks through the years and achieve quite the celebrity status and Jesse through the years has achieved a legend status. Many see James as a "Robin Hood" who would steal from the rich and give to the poor and many just see him as a cold-blooded killer who got what was coming to him.

Through the years, there have been plenty of people who have been played the role of Jesse James in films. In the earlier years, he was portrayed by such greats as Tyrone Power, Roy Rogers, Clayton Moore, and portrayed that heroic person so went into a life of crime out of circumstance. One of the earliest films that portrayed Jesse James as just a criminal wanting to make money was Bob Hope's 1959 comedy ALIAS JESSE JAMES where Hope sells him an insurance policy not knowing he is really the outlaw. After this and other things, Jesse James sets out to kill Bob Hope. In 1949, Samuel Fuller makes his directorial debut with a movie called I SHOT JESSE JAMES which portrays Ford after the assassination and Fuller made it very known of his thoughts of James. He found James to be a cold-blooded psychopath who shot down women, children, the elderly, and helpless and that Ford did what should have been done much earlier. In the later years, most of his portrayals are either of a Robin Hood figure or as a man who became an outlaw out of circumstance. No matter what, historians will always debate on his so-called heroic status.

I will just go ahead and say that I really do not see Mr. James as a hero even though I have seen much of the films that portray him as one and have even included in my recommendations. However, I do understand the reasoning for us to see him as heroic. We need that cool outlaw that we can apparently relate to and can give everyone something to live for in all the stories that have been written by him. I feel that Jesse James' heroic status was something that was created by Americans and mostly by ones who were poor and more oppressed. It was a myth that I feel that Jesse James really did not even create but just took full advantage.

Now we go to Robert Ford, a well-known member of the James Gang who would then go onto kill Jesse James for a pardon and for a reward which in real-life he had never received. When Ford killed Jesse James, he went onto become a big celebrity in his own right by posing for photos and reenacting the assassination on a stageshow with his brother Charlie. Ford was seen by many as the coward who shot their hero and would become a target to many. My feeling is that Ford was just doing what he felt he needed to do and lots can happen when one fears for their life. Ford would later get it in the end when Edward O'Kelley shot him and would become "The Man Who Killed the Man who Killed Jesse James".

Now onto the movie. Andrew Dominick directed this adaptation from the 1983 novel by Ron Hansen. This movie takes place in the later days of the James Gang and even when Jesse James was living under the name Thomas Howard. This movie is really more about Robert Ford and we start where he has idolized Jesse James all his life through all the dime novels and such. Casey Affleck plays the role of Bob Ford and I consider that performance one of the best of the decade. Brad Pitt is also very good as Jesse James whose heroism is surrounded by the hype like what Bob Ford had read all his life. The main relationship here is between James and Ford where Ford observes his every movement trying to be like him. Ford then slowly sees his idol may not be the hero the novels claim him to be and becomes conflicted.

Sam Shepard plays Frank James who actually left the gang and just seemed to be burned out by the robberies and all the young people trying to be like them. When Ford arrives on the scene, he first talks to Frank and tells him he wants to be just like them and Frank did not like that. Sam Rockwell is pretty good in his role as Bob's older brother Charlie who was already in the gang.

I loved this movie on so many levels. I will start Roger Deakins who was the cinematography and was the star of the film when you consider how beautiful the cinematography was in the movie. We also have singer Nick Cave and Warren Ellis who wrote the great musical score and some may notice I am a bit of a sucker to a good music score and it was a music score that was done in the absolute right places. Nick Cave also made a cameo towards the end of the film as a bar singer and sung about Jesse James. Hugh Ross provided narration in certain parts of the film which was done very limited and well.

If you are watching this and you are expecting all kinds of gun battles and killing, this is not the right Jesse James film for you. It shows a little bit of his robberies but more focuses on the people which I really liked as well. One of my favorite quotes from the movie was when Jesse James said to Ford "I don't know if you are trying to be like me or trying to be me".

This movie really looks at the James Gang from Bob Ford's perspective were we see him joining the James Gang and slowly become disappointed that his idol is not a good person. We obviously see him shoot James which the title already gives that away and his life afterwards where he had to deal with people thinking he was a coward. It shows him and Charlie reacting the shooting on the stage. I have seen a few adaptations of Jesse James and see this one as my favorite and the most accurate description. Through some research I have found that even descendants of Jesse James and Robert Ford felt this was the most accurate film portrayal of all time.

I could go on about this one forever so I won't and I'm sure there will be plenty of agreements and disagreements and so tell me how you feel on here. I am going to start doing these kinds of blogs more often, I'm shooting for at least a couple each month while my recommendation blogs are my most important but I will have some side projects and have something good prepared in about one or two weeks. Don't forget to check out Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations and I will release a new one on Sunday which so far features John Landis, Clint Eastwood, Don Knotts, John Cleese, and many more. I know reviews are not exactly my strong point but I hope everyone can appreciate the effort I put into writing this review.