Rojo
The Assassination of Jesse James
In an earlier post (3:10 to Yuma) I pointed out how movie houses often release movie to counter a rival houses movie. I cited an example of 3:10 and The Assassination of Jesse James as two rival films going up against each other and I was right and I was wrong.
A slow tale of one mans gradual decent into insanity via paranoia and a bi-polar mental state, and another mans want for fame and acceptance, opposed to a slight action flick with no apparent flair of story, a almost buddy western compared to a historical account of a occurrence and the prosaic events that lead to one man dusting a painting only to be shot in the back of the head by a legendary coward.
But I feel I was only right in the sense that both these films were set in the west, it is this that is the similarity and that is it.
The Assassination of Jesse James is a excruciatingly slow (we should be tipped off by the near ostentatious length of the title) portrait of Roberts Ford’s desire of acceptance from Jesse James and his desire to be perstalled as James is. He is a child in young man’s clothing, crying as his older brother hassles him for his love for the James gang we see he is but a mere boy lacking the maturity to be a gun slinger but the want to be like his hero, to be a feared man, a man whom inspires dread and awe.
Ford (played amazingly by Casey Affleck - my opinion deserving of a best supporting actor nomination) is worm like, pasty and has that look of someone you will never like, but something about him drives you to feel sorry for him, pity him, it is this pity that allows accept us and almost like him, almost. His older brother Charley (Sam Rockwell) a dense, almost retarded outlaw that has you questioning how the hell he has managed to stay free for so long being so dim. As the story erodes on and Sam Rockwell weaves his brilliance we see that whilst yes he is simple he is no fool, he is sensitive and he knows how to keep alive. There is a particular scene near the end of this movie where we see how truly amazing Rockwell is as he plays Jesse James and is near exact to Pitt but in saying this I mean though he enacts Pitts rendition of the character you can see Rockwell could have played this character as Rockwell is a great actor one that is given much credit but one that can slip from our radars, I know he slips from mine.
Brad Pitt is solid, his performance is tight, it’s good but it’s Affleck who shines with Rockwell glimmering at his side Pitt is once again proving he is a great actor but that is all, and that’s fine, this truly is Affleck’s film.
All in all this movie is slow, hard to take slow, almost walking out slow. Near three hours was in my opinion is a big ask for an audience even if there are amazing performances on the table with master photography included (Roger Deakins this man can shoot a film). We know what is going to happen it says it in the title, it drags, limps and its just not worth the wait for a nothing pay-off, I was disappointed and I’m disappointed that I was disappointed. A better film would have been about the life of Robert Ford after he had assassinated James.
7.5/10
I just did an interview with the cinematographer Roger Deakins, he's amazing. The process of shooting this film was incredibly interesting.
it'll be up in a week at InDigestmag.com
I like the blog.
-dustin