The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Rating: 8/10 (6 November 2007)

A very fine movie from Andrew Dominik, who directed it and also adapted the screenplay from a novel by Ron Hansen. The train robbery sequence is built up in a very unexcited way and executed very well. After that the film concentrates on James' gang and how fast trust can knock over in distrust. Men get killed, friendship is not possible  there is just too much past in between them. Woman and children have to do the hard work, while their men are carrying out duels. And they also have to deal with it, when from one second to the other they lose their husbands or fathers. Also the end was very good, it added the right tone to a visually rich and thoroughly told story. The film is dominated by the performances of Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck. While Pitt is really great as Jesse James, in comparison to Casey Affleck he has to pale. Affleck perfectly portrays this seemingly weak character with his conflicting behaviour.