The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is not the film you are probably expecting it to be. Automatically you’d assume that it’s a shoot ‘em up western. It isn’t. It’s a deeply hypnotic, lyrical and poetic, both visually and literally, film which I fell deeply into. It is also a western with some shoot ‘em up and much like There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men, this film is a slow boil, brimming with intensity.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert tells story of the last 7 months of Jesse James’ (Brad Pitt) life. Quickly we get the idea that the hangers on in the James Gang are all starfuckers with their gaze set directly on the elusive, charismatic and mysterious Jesse James, but none more than Robert Ford (Casey Affleck). Not yet 20, Robert Ford worships his childhood hero with the same wide-eyed wonder he did 10 years earlier, though he acts like he doesn’t. It’s a crush essentially, and he doesn’t hide it well.

The film follows the members of the James Gang as they chunk off into groups and separate following a train robbery. Most are related to each other in one way or another and never stray too far for too long, usually ending up back at the Ford household. And it is there where Jesse James seals his fate with the socially awkward Ford.

The film doesn’t just focus on James and Ford, we get to know all of the members of the gang, and love them or hate them, they are richly drawn and beautifully brought to life by an incredible cast. There are little performance gems all over this film. Sam Rockwell, Paul Schneider, Garret Dillahunt, Jeremy Renner, Sam Shepard, Gretchen Mol, and Mary-Louise Parker deliver terrific performances which can’t be fully appreciated until they are seen. Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs) and Zooey Deschanel show up for a brief period of time and leave a deep impression. This is a great cast. Before I saw the film and read the cast list I was excited- Bravo to the casting director, the director or whomever came up with the idea of casting these actors. There are people whom you may not recognize but have been doing terrific work on TV and in smaller, meaning less widely seen, films.

Brad Pitt is someone whose work I’ve admired for a long time. I noticed him in Thelma and Louise just like the rest of the world, but I felt the part to be a little showy and frankly, kind of obvious. Kalifornia is what really brought him to my attention and if you haven’t seen the film, seek it out. For those of you who have seen it, you’ll appreciate something Pitt does in the film that is a direct nod to Kalifornia. It would be easy to forget that he’s such a great actor seeing as how his personal life has become tabloid fodder and lame late night talk show jokes about how many kids he has. He has a varied and high reaching line of movies trailing behind him…12 Monkeys, Interview with a Vampire, True Romance (best stoner ever), Legends of the Fall, Fight Club, Snatch, Ocean’s Eleven, Babel…you get the idea- The man is not afraid to take chances. His performance here is beautifully nuanced- at times big and powerful and at others small and equally, if not more, powerful. He won Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival and I can see why.

Casey Affleck had a great year. He was very good in Gone Baby Gone and he is even better in this- not that it’s fair to compare (poet didn’t know it) but from frame one to the end frame he is nothing less than totally convincing. He broke my heart. Sad and awkward, angry and introverted, proud and ashamed- he covers it all and he covers it all very well. I’m starting to reconsider my belief that Javier Bardem gave the best supporting actor performance of the year.

This film is also very well directed by Andrew Dominik, who has only one other credit under his belt, the terrific Chopper starring a then unknown Eric Bana (Hulk, Troy, Munich). The film is deliberately paced and mannered. Shots hold for longer than we’re used to, cutaways are used to show the mood of the characters and set the tone and mood for the film as a whole. Portions of the film are punctuated by voice-over passages done in a very even almost stoic voice as if they were being read directly from the book. These scenes are shot in the same fashion and have the same musical score. It’s an interesting technique that some might not like but that I loved.

Now onto the cinematography; Good God is it amazing. Roger Deakins is my favorite DP and while I was over the moon that Robert Elswit picked the Oscar for his work in There Will Be Blood, I think the award belongs to Deakins. There isn’t a single shot in the film that isn’t beautiful. Most of it is downright breathtaking. For a man who consistently does incredible work, he truly out does himself here. The film is painterly and eye-poppingly majestic. I’d be curious to know how much of the film was shot with natural light. Some of it looks as though it’s lit only with candles. I was mesmerized. This is a wonderful film, but something significant would be missing without Roger Deakin’s photography. Bravo, sir!

I saw this film in the ideal conditions and you should do likewise should you choose to seek it out. Lights completely out, volume cranked. I wish I saw it in the theater but alas I didn’t. This came and went from theaters faster than Daddy Day Camp and that’s fucking sad if you ask me. I’ve read, I believe on Ain’t it Cool but I can’t be sure, that the studio didn’t like or believe in the film and so they “dumped” it. This means they released it in a very small amount of theaters, did no promotion for it and essentially cut their losses and didn’t give a shit about it. What a shame…and keep in mind this film is not for everyone but neither is Daddy Day Camp or the innumerable other total piece of shit, waste of time and money films released every week. There is exceptional work from cast and crew alike in this film and it’s too bad more people haven’t seen it.