Jesse James and Jesus?

Rating: 1/10 (22 May 2008)

Anybody see a parallel between how the death of Jesse James was portrayed and the Biblical account of the death of Jesus? Obviously (according to the movie) Jesse knew he was going to die. He was approximately the same age as Jesus. And he had a trusted member of his gang betray him (Bob Ford in the Judas role).
I don't know if it was the novelist, the screenwriter/director or Pitt who may have tried to parallel the ultimate hero and the anti-hero but I saw it very clearly.
As for the movie, the only redeeming quality for me was the cinematography. The film was interminably long and had all the excitement and action of the dusty picture Pitt was looking at when he was shot. Had they released the original cut at four hours, I would have sought out the descendants of Robert Ford and had him put a bullet in my head.
This was obviously a vanity project for Pitt and he obviously called the shots as this was the writer/director's first credit and apparently was there in title only as Pitt's stooge. Another case of the nuts running the nut house. What a waste of film.