A Dirge for the death of two outlaws

Rating: 9/10 (11 October 2007)

Ana, my wife, hit the nail on the head as we discussed this film on the way home. Speaking of the length and the pacing of the film she said, "Of course it was long and built slowly. It was a dirge, a stately funeral march toward the inevitable ending." Dead on, dear. Ana is not a fan of westerns, for the most part. She's been dragged into the whole western thing by me, who has loved them from his childhood. I especially like ones that have the aura of authenticity, costuming, sets, weapons, the look of the people and so on. This movie has that all.
It also has fine portrayals of the main characters -- the two outlaws, Jesse James (Brad Pitt) and Bob Ford (Casey Affleck) -- who are linked in the title and in life. All the supporting cast, including the often quirky choices for cameos -- like James Carville as the governor -- work well. Some, like Mary Louise Parker's Zee James seem underused, but the film was cut to its theatrical length so their full performances may be awaiting the DVD.
Brad Pitt resembles, to a great degree, photos of James, especially at rest. He makes the character something more than a deranged killer. The motivations of Jesse, his brother, Frank (Sam Shepard)and the rest of their kith and kin from Clay County, Missouri can be argued, but they felt that they had reasons for what they did both in the War and after. For the most part, they stole from entities that they considered part of the Union and the Eastern Yankee machine that had defeated them, humiliating the South into the bargain. Reconstruction was ugly and the border warfare before, during and after the war was some of the worst most mean-spirited fighting there was.
At one point the question is asked -- did Bob Ford want to be like Jesse or to be him? The hero worship at the beginning turns rancid -- as it often does in stalker cases (and that's what this is in modern terms) and eventually the fan -- Ford -- kills his idol. Of course, there was also a reward involved and the chance to be the man who shot Jesse James and the fame that went with it. All that makes for an irresistible package. Affleck certainly takes us on that journey with him and allows us to see the younger Ford brother make his way from one point on the arc to the other, ending his life with no fanfare, no ballads, stories, books or much interest in him except as "the dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard and laid poor Jesse in his grave."
The film is beautiful but it is also almost disturbingly violent, with the violence coming with little or no warning. I'm not unused to violence or gunshots and I jumped a few times sitting in the theater. And the gun-play was also believable. In the scene where Bob Ford kills for the first time, the exchange of gunfire between Charlie and Wood Hite at point blank range resulted in only minor wounds. Some will find that hard to believe but I nodded and smiled. Despite all the dime novels and B-movie westerns depicting everyone as a dead shot, most people in those days weren't great shots, even across a room.
A case can be made that Jesse James put himself in front of the gun that Ford wielded so hesitantly. Perhaps he realized that his time was nearly over, that he had no more places to run and huge opposition from the railroad, the Pinkertons who worked for them and a government interested in settling the area and putting the war and violence behind it That was, as I recall, the thrust of the novel from which the film took its major premise and much of the narration.
When this film comes to DVD I will own it. I will recommend it to anyone with an interest in western history, in complex characters and in beautiful cinematography -- although you can't really make Canada look and act like Missouri -- but with a caveat that you need to bring something to this movie and that includes the patience to allow the story to unfold at its own funereal pace. I felt rewarded for having done so as did Ana. Money and time well spent, for sure.