A great film telling the lives of two similar yet, very different men

Rating: 9/10 (22 August 2012)

SPOILERS
The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford is a film that may be off-putting because of it's lengthy title. But none the less this is a film that must be seen. The name Jesse James has been one that has always been known, people may not know exactly who he is but rest assured they've heard of his name that demands people's attention.
SPOILERS BEGIN HERE: This film however is in my opinion not about Jesse James and more about Robert Ford. A character that I find very interesting. Casey Affleck portrays the character as soft spoken and very figity. When I first saw the character I couldn't stand him, but I deeply enjoyed Jesse James, as time progressed however their roles flipped, I was rooting for Robert as I saw Jesse become the wild west's "Robin Hood" and turn into a common gang leader. Robert began in the movie as Jesse's #1 fan and as it progressed he was pushed into developing a deep and complicated resent for him.
After a series of events Robert decides to arrest Jesse James and to do that he must become close to him. There are many who do not know how the legendary figure died, and it is not in the epic way so many western gun slingers meet their end, however for me it was equally intense. Jesse states that he should take his guns off to avoid suspicion in town, then after doing so says that a picture of a horse looks dusty, he walks over stands on to of a chair and sees Robert's reflection in the picture and does nothing, then he is shot. This whole scene (historically accurate) seems out of character for Jesse James and leads me to believe that he wanted Robert to kill him, (he previously gave Robert a gun as a present). The ending of the movie has me sympathizing for Robert, he felt he would have became a legend and instead....nothing. His life was full of remorse and mixed emotions. In 1892 Ford himself was assassinated by Edward O'Kelly.
This is not the type of "Western" with epic showdowns one would imagine, it instead trades it for the intensity Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck bring to these two characters. I highly recommend that if you have even the slightest interest in this movie WATCH IT!