In 2007 a Biographical Western was debuted at a film festival at 4 hours in length before being cut down to the “marketable” 2 hours and 40 minutes. The movie is the drawn out tail of the last days of the James-Younger Gang and (as the title says) the murder of Jesse James by Bob Ford.
By the monetary measure this film was a box office failure costing $30 Million to produce and earning a scant $4 MIlion at the box office. But all movie fans know that bad marketing or timing will doom a film at the box office before it ever gets off the ground. But when Brad Pitt agreed to co-produce this film, he knew it was the story that was important. It was the story that needed to be told. If this film is judged by that metric, than The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a complete success.
This movie was genius, even if it did drag from time to time…
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a stylish character study. Brad Pitt (Jesse James) and Casey Affleck (Bob Ford) are spectacular. Sam Rockwell is brilliant in his portrayal of Charlie Ford. The landscapes of Alberta and Manitoba were majestic. The shots, staging, and tone established by the direction of Andrew Dominik walk the viewer through a study of James and the Ford clan. The viewer travels through a range of emotion and images of the James-Younger Gang in those fateful days of 1881 and 1882.
The viewer is given to understand the hero worship of the thief James through all of his dark and deranged ways. Jesse James tells the wide-eyed Robert Ford, “they are all lies you know”, when confronted with his celebrity. Even James Carville makes an appearance as Governor Thomas T. Crittenden of Missouri to underscore the fictive nature of Jesse’s Robin Hood status. The development of the relationship between Jesse, Bob, and Charlie is a rich and rewarding tale of loyalty and betrayal; worship and sacrifice; paranoia and perdition.
The movie is stylishly dark, slow, steady, and unrelentingly rewarding. The cast, augmented by Sam Shepard and Zooey Daschanel among others, is perfectly suited for this character driven drama. If you are a fan of period pieces and you enjoyed such films as Unforgiven and Open Range, then this movie is for you.