kartiknnagar This is a slow, beautifully acted western which is a very realistic and faithful adaptation of an actual historical event. To be honest, it is a bit difficult to relate to the principal characters and the themes are very specific to the era which are not much applicable today. Glorification of criminals (especially charismatic gun- slinging cowboys) is not something that is relevant today, and the movie only touches on this theme towards the very end.The movie is beautifully shot, the background music is stirring and perfectly matches the events, the ensemble cast is brilliant and both Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck give good performances. Brad Pitt generally only plays one type of character-the charismatic, confident, commanding leader-and Jesse James perfectly matches that archetype, although I think that Pitt's efforts to show how broken Jesse is inside do not quite hit the mark and are not very effective. Further, every other character is terrified of Jesse but we do not actually see him doing much, which is slightly puzzling. Casey Affleck is also good, but the jump from Robert Ford adoring Jesse James to Robert Ford suddenly deciding to assassinate Jesse at any cost is a bit abrupt and not very convincing. The assassination scene itself is very strange, in fact Jesse's entire behavior leading to the assassination scene is very puzzling, almost as if he had already given up on his life which does not quite match his character. Motivations are not effectively conveyed, and one has to carefully consider the events to infer them. But perhaps that is intentional, as the focus of the movie seems to be just relate the facts and events in an almost documentary-style. The movie is really long and depicts in great detail a number of extraneous events involving other members of the James gang which are only tangentially related to the central narrative. In spite of all the complaints though, I was utterly captivated throughout its entire length, and the acting and music and the gravitas of the characters makes up for all the other shortcomings.

lookformed Brad Pitt shows off his acting talent by displaying Jesse James in another light. We often think of the old west quaintly, however, this brings the viewer back into the reality that gangs were part of it. Jesse James is portrayed as a psychopath, and Robert Ford as a stop-and-go kind of character. Meaning, at times he dares to say what others will not; conversely, he will also shut down into a series of lies, of refusal to embrace the side of him that remains a child (which would make him much more widely accepted by other characters), and shut down into himself. In a bizarre depiction of humans being human, we learn that Jesse James (a violent thief and murderer) is celebrated after his death, while Robert Ford is first idealized and then devalued by society- observing that some part of us always celebrates those who dare to flout "the man."

aa56 So I put the DVD in the player and sit back to enjoy a good Western, but what happens? After a brief narration, there is at least five minutes of a bunch of actors in period dress talking 'bout fornicating with women, interspersed with Affleck mumbling to Shepherd. I'm thinking, has this movie officially started or did the director film some sort of rehearsal and accidentally put it into the finished product? Throw out any teaching of plot creation or advancement in this film. At about the five minute mark of this nonsense, I ejected the DVD.

Wuchak Released in 2007 and directed by Andrew Dominik, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" stars Brad Pitt as the famous outlaw in a chronicling of the last seven months of his life. The movie begins with the Blue Cut Train Robbery that took place in Missouri on September 7, 1881. Casey Affleck co-stars as Robert Ford, a 20 year-old member of Jesse's gang, who kills James for the reward, but also (presumeably) because he and his brother, Charles (Sam Rockwell), feared Jesse was going to kill them. The final 25 minutes detail the Ford brothers lives over the course of the next decade after James' execution on April 3, 1882. Paul Schneider,Garret Dillahunt, Jeremy Renner, Sam Shepard, Mary-Louise Parker, Kailin See and Zooey Deschanel have notable support roles.This is a funereal, realistic Western consisting of long dramatic sequences spiced with flashes of violence. Although critically praised, it bombed at the box office and some people scoff at it as a slow bore, but I found it pretty mesmerizing, even haunting. There are numerous highlights during its 2 hour and 40 minutes, like the opening train robbery, the outhouse rendezvous between Schneider and See, the tense gunfight in the upstairs of a frontier house, Jesse's death and the interesting aftermath.The movie makes a point of depicting Jesse as a paranoid man on his way to an early grave because of his foolish choice to be an unrepentant outlaw. At least Frank James (Shepard) had the scruples to leave outlawry and move east. Jesse is shown lamenting what his life had become and even shooting one of his comrades in the back, like a coward, not to mention abusing an adolescent. Yes, Ford later shoots Jesse in the back, but it had to be done. Jesse's days were numbered due to his own bad choices. Plus Robert and his brother were afraid that Jesse was going to shoot them at any moment. Also keep in mind that Jesse wasn't no frickin' Robin Hood; he stole from the rich and regular folks alike and gave to... well, himself. In light of all this the title of the movie is purely ironic, but when the legend becomes fact, print the legend, as they say.The Alberta and Manitoba locations are picturesque, but they don't look like Missouri and Kentucky (and surrounding states), where the events took place. These are Eastern states, albeit "midwest." The locations in the movie look like what they are -- the northern prairie. "The Long Riders" (1980) is more accurate on this count.GRADE: B+