Fame Monsters

Rating: 8/10 (19 January 2010)

There are perhaps few films in which the basic synopsis of the script can be summed up in the title. One thinks of lesser fare than this, certainly ("Zack And Miri Make A Porno", for example) or rather interesting Spanish translations of titles (classic "Family Guy" joke here, top prize for whoever gets the reference first). With this film, the title does just that - it is about the assassination of the notorious Western criminal by one of his associates, Robert Ford, who ends up being defamed in the history books as a coward, and the time line leading up to the aforementioned event. Simple.
But not quite, for, as with most great films, there is always something more, another message that the film is trying to say. And this is a great film. A really great film.
Visually, it's stunning. The bleak Western landscape perfectly captures the mood of the story, with slight out of focus shots beautifully helping to add to the unhinged portrayal of the anti-hero James by Brad Pitt. This is one of those films where you suddenly remember that Pitt, the second half of 'Brangelina', can act occasionally. It's a fantastic performance, showing James as an out of control beast, but also with some very quiet melancholic foreboding, as if he knows he's living on borrowed time. It's matched, and perhaps even bettered, by a superb performance by Casey Affleck as Ford; Affleck is a dreamer, a man refusing to grow up, whose fantasies of riding with the James gang and being the criminal's best buddy seem to have corrupted his naive innocence. When the cold-blooded reality sinks in of the true nature of Jesse's work and Jesse's character, it becomes unbearable.
There are other terrific performances in the film, not least from Sam Rockwell as Ford's older brother, whose own gullibility is soon swallowed up by fear, and a short but mesmerising turn from Garret Dillahunt as Ed Miller, whose paranoia costs him his life and lights the fuse for James' own fragile sense of trust to be shattered.
The script is well paced, exploring the story like a history documentary with Hugh Ross' calm narration. There's no point in hiding the ending - the title's given it away already. Instead, the script is full of explanations, showing why Ford did what he did, and leaving it up to us to determine whether or not it was a good thing and whether or not he really was a 'coward', as suggested in the ballad sung by one of the film's co-composers, Nick Cave. He and Warren Ellis do a fine job with the score, leaving it subtle and calm, and adding to the quiet life out in the wilderness.
Overall, the film is about fame and the hunger for fame. James is famous for his notoriety, a man who, like the characters played by Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis in "Natural Born Killers", becomes famous for all the wrong reasons. Ford wants the same kind of fame, but when he gets it in the aftermath of his role in James' death, he finds it stifling and unsatisfying, and over far too quickly; the fame of a coward does not last as long as the fame of a 'hero'. And so the film speaks volumes for us today, in this age where we've lived through the last decade as the Decade of 15 Minutes, the decade where anyone and everyone can be famous for as long as Ford was, and can still find it as he does.
A fantastic film.
8/10