Western starring Brad Pitt as the legendary Wild West outlaw
Jesse James. To those he robbed and terrorised, he may have been
just a criminal, but in the sensational newspaper articles and
dime novels chronicling the James Gang throughout the 1870s,
Jesse was the object of awe and admiration. Foremost among his
admirers was Robert Ford (Casey Affleck), an idealistic and
ambitious young man who had devoted his life to the hope of one
day riding alongside his idol. When Robert is recruited into
James' notorious gang, he eventually grows jealous of the famed
outlaw and when he and his brother Charley (Sam Rockwell) sense
an rtunity to kill James, their murderous action elevates
their target to near mythical status.
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Note: On the disc the "making of documentary" is referred to as
"Behind the Story – Death of an Outlaw".
From .co.uk
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Of all the movies made about or glancingly involving the
19th-century outlaw Jesse Woodson James, The Assassination of
Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is the most reflective,
most ambitious, most intricately fascinating, and indisputably
most beautiful. Based on the novel of the same name by Ron
Hansen, it picks up James late in his career, a few hours before
his final train robbery, then covers the slow catastrophe of the
gang's breakup over the next seven months even as the boss
himself settles into an approximation of genteel retirement. But
in another sense all of the movie is later than that. The very
title assumes the audience's familiarity with James as a figure
out of history and legend, and our awareness that he was--will
be--murdered in his parlor one quiet afternoon by a back-shooting
crony.
The film--only the second to be made by New Zealandborn
writer-director Andrew Dominik--reminds us that Dominik's debut
film, Chopper, was the cunningly off-kilter portrait of another
real-life criminal psychopath who became a kind of rock star to
his society. The Jesse James of this telling is no Robin Hood
robbing the rich to give to the poor, and that train robbery we
witness is punctuated by acts of gratuitous brutality, not
gallantry. Nineteen-year-old Bob Ford (Casey Affleck) seeks to
join the James gang out of hero worship stoked by the dime novels
he secretes under his bed, but his glam hero (Brad Pitt) is a
monster who takes private glee in infecting his accomplices with
his own paranoia, then murdering them for it. In the careful
orchestration of James's final moments, there's even a hint that
he takes satisfaction in his own demise. Affleck and Pitt (who
co-produced with Ridley Scott, among others) are mesmerising in
the title roles, but the movie is enriched by an exceptional
supporting cast: Sam Shepard as Jesse's older, more stable
brother Frank; Sam Rockwell as Bob Ford's own brother Charlie,
whose post-assassination descent into madness is astonishing to
behold; Paul Schneider, Garret Dillahunt, and Jeremy Renner as
three variously doomed gang members; and Mary-Louise Parker, who
as Jesse's wife Zee has few lines yet manages with looks and body
language to invoke a well nigh-novelistic back-story for herself.
There are also electrifying cameos by James Carville, doing solid
actorly work as the governor of Missouri; Ted Levine, as a lawman
of antic spirit; and Nick Cave, composer of the film's score
(with Warren Ellis) and screenwriter of the Aussie western The
Proposition, suddenly towering over a late scene to perform the
folk song that set the terms for the book and movie's title.
Still, the real co-star is Roger Deakins, probably the finest
cinematographer at work today. The landscapes of the movie
(mostly in Alberta and Manitoba) will linger in the memory as
long as the distinctive faces, and we seem to feel the sting of
its snows on our cheeks. Interior scenes are equally persuasive.
Few westerns have conveyed so tangibly the bleakness and
austerity of the spaces people of the frontier called home, and
sought in vain to warm with human spirit. --Richard T. Jameson
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Synopsis
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Based on the 1983 novel by Ron Hansen, The Assassination of
Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford captivatingly depicts the
final few months of the legendary Jesse James's life. He was 34,
and his days of ruthless robbing had dwindled, yet his fearsome
reputation continued to swell. With an abundance of nickel-books
retelling his brutal -slinging adventures, James (portrayed by
Brad Pitt, in one his most convincing and moving roles) had
become a symbolic hero for many Americans, and a dazzling tabloid
icon for the 19th-century media. A particular young man seduced
by the wonderment of James, the shifty Robert Ford (a
breakthrough performance by Casey Affleck), wormed his way in as
a James groupie, in the hopes of snagging a coveted spot
alongside his brother Charley (played by the always affable Sam
Rockwell) as one of the bandit's cronies. Ford, fiercely insecure
and painfully aware that he would never be taken seriously by
James (who, ever-plagued by paranoia and scepticism, found Ford's
earnest obsession a bit unsettling), grew increasingly angry with
his idol, leading to a destructive path that ultimately ended in
the anticlimactic death of Jesse James--and brought the
treacherous Robert Ford the notoriety he had always wanted.
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