The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

[Torgo]

***1/2 out of ****.

I picked this up on DVD yesterday and watched it last night and I was very impressed.  The movie is long at 160 minutes and it could have maybe used just a wee bit of tightening up during the middle section but overall I didn't notice how much time had passed.

The last film I saw from director Andrew Dominik was the memorable 2000 film Chopper that thrust Eric Bana to worldwide acclaim and made people sit up and take notice of him as an actor of most formidable talent.

TAOJJBTCRF(as I'll type the title as it's just too long to repeat) is a completely different beast. The movie has ton of long takes that allow the viewer to just soak it in and it reminded me a lot at times of an updated version stylistically of Badlands or Days of Heaven especially.  The movie starts out right before Jesse James does his final train robbery with his infamous James Gang of hoodlums and what transpires after that when his brother in the group decides to call it quits and moves back east.  The Robert Ford character is a kind of meek person who is wanting to do something that will make people sit up and take notice of him by befriending Jesse James game and eventually becoming part of his gang.  He is willing to take even more drastic measures to game fame if that doesn't work.     

The movie takes it's time and that's a plus in this case.  Brad Pitt surprisingly underplays Jesse James effectively and turns in one of his best performances in quite some time.  Casey Affleck turns in an amazingly nuanced performance as the Robert Ford character who befriends Jesse James and well, the eventual plot is outlined directly in the long winded title.

The rest of the cast is fantastic all around but the only place where I have to tighten up the movie is during the elongated middle section in which some secondary characters take almost more prominence than the 2 title characters. While the characters are extremely well written and acted, there were a few things that probably could have been removed at no expense of the movie as a whole.

The movie had a very convoluted release as it was filmed in 2005 and aimed for a 2006 release but the movie was held back to be reedited more along the lines of what the studio was looking for.  The director's original version was well over 3 hours long but who knows if that original cut will see the light of day. Considering that this version could have maybe had 20 more minutes cut out I doubt it would have helped the movie any.

This is still one of the most unusual Westerns that I've ever seen and is still well worth viewing by anyone wanting to see something truly unique in modern cinema that you don't see much of anymore.

To anyone else on here who have seen this flick, what were your opinions of it?

[indianasmith]

I haven't seen it yet, but probably will at some point.  I will admit I have never understood the endless romanticization of Jesse James.  He was one of dozens of disaffected ex-Confederates who couldn't handle a Union victory and turned to being an outlaw . . . . the only more overrated character in Western history was Billy the Kid!

[Scott]

Will probably see this as some point. The length might put it at the end of my Western movie list. Sounds very good.

Seraphin Falls and September Dawn are also on my Western movie list.

[The Burgomaster]

This is an excellent movie. Casey Affleck proves he's a far superior actor to his brother Ben!  And Bradd Pitt's performance is riveting. 

[Neville]

I really want to watch it, but I keep hearing its style is similar to Terrence Malick, and I'm not exactly the biggest Malick fan out there. I'll wait till it shows on TV or the DVD caughs my eye on the rental store.

[peter johnson]

OMG -- I finally saw this last night --
Sepia-toned wonderfulness of cinematography -- Dixie found it superior to "There Will Be Blood" in every way -- Myself, I'd definitely agree that the editing was superior.
Talk about dramatic tension!  The slow disintegration of James as he embraces his own inevitable end is very wonderful:  Brad Pitt does astonishing things with his unblinking character.  He portrays a psyco-killer that is at once sympathetic and believeable, ditto Affleck's Ford.
I especially liked how the film continues on for 20 years after James' death to show how it affected popular culture and the lives of some of those involved.
Whether or not we today "get" the myth of James, it is significant that he overshadowed the ouvre of his time and wayyy beyond -- A silent film made in 1920 was a huge hit because it featured walk-on parts by his son and daughter.  Can we think of anything similar in today's pop-culture?
A simply wonderful movie, almost perfectly made.  I didn't even really want to see it, as I'm not much of a Western fan, but am soooo glad I did!!
peter johnson/denny crane

[HarlotBug3]

Better than 'There Will be Blood' eh?

That's quite a challenge, but when westerns are good, they usually are VERY good.

I'm in.

Likewise, if you're interested in old/aging frontier stories I cannot recommend 'There Will be Blood' strongly enough as it's one of the most believable lessons in American History I might ever see.