The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford ****½ (2007, Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepard, Sam Rockwell) – Classic Movie Review 2400

Casey Affleck gives a superbly snivelling performance as the 20-year-old rat-like coward Robert Ford, who has idolised the Missouri outlaw gang leader Jesse James since childhood. Director Andrew Dominik‘s 2007 movie takes its place as one of only a small handful of great, definitive modern-day Westerns made in the past quarter century.

[Spoiler alert] Ford tries hard to be part of the outlaw gang, but he is always an outsider and he gradually becomes resentful of Jesse James. Thus feeling spurned, he shoots the 34-year-old Jesse in the back on April 3 1882 to claim the reward.

Director Andrew Dominik bases his screenplay on the novel by Ron Hansen. The title is self-explanatory, as only perhaps a title that long can be. The film obviously focuses on the relationship between Jesse and Ford, while the plot equally obviously deals with the last months of Jesse’s life from meeting Ford to the day Ford shoots him. Jesse’s a wanted man, living under a pseudonym and planning a bank holdup with Ford and his brother Charley (Sam Rockwell).

Ford gets his wishes of getting the reward and also being somebody. He becomes famous, re-enacting the shooting on stage, facing down the label ‘coward’. But he himself is shot dead in 1892.

Affleck was Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category (though it’s a star role), and was robbed by winning none. It’s entirely his film, even outshining Pitt, who’s also plenty good, playing the infamous outlaw as the beloved anti-hero of legend.

Indeed the film’s main strengths are its two lead performances, plus the glorious Oscar-nominated cinematography by Roger Deakins. He uses used palettes of brown and black to produce a bleak quality to the film, reminiscent of the paintings of Andrew Wyeth. And he also imitates the look of old photographs with colour aberration around the edges of the exterior shots. His shooting of the scene of a train robbery at night time is one of the film’s main highlights.

However, Pitt won the prestigious Volpi Cup for Best Actor when the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival. There were also awards for composers Nick Cave and Warren Ellis for their score.

Sam Shepard is outstanding in actual support as Jesse’s brother Frank. Also in the cast are Mary-Louise Parker, Jeremy Renner, Garret Dillahunt, Paul Schneider, Brooklynn Proulx, Michael Parks and Dustin Bollinger.

It was filmed in Edmonton, Alberta; Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Grafton, Utah.

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© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2400

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