American Culture Hasn't Changed Much

Rating: 10/10 (11 November 2007)

"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" has rightly been praised for its superb acting and script. This may be Brad Pitt's finest performance, and Casey Affleck's nuanced, sensitive, courageously profound performance deserves an Oscar. In fact, all the acting is superior.
What strikes me most, however, is how dead-on the movie is in its analysis of American culture. We've not changed much in the 125 years since James was shot from behind, just as he had murdered many of his own victims. American culture still lionizes and mythologizes sociopathic murderers (compare this movie with the recently released "American Gangster," which depicts its real-life hero, Frank Lucas, as literally getting away with murder; we are supposed to like the false fact that he's a family man). Lonely, victimized fans still kill their heroes or at least stalk them, and just as Ford and his brother, Charlie, reenact on stage Robert's slaying of the monster/hero Jesse James, so do our TV and movie media rush to cash in on the most horrendous acts of violence. Another parallel is the killing of the assassin (Lee Harvey Oswald is the prominent example).
These themes are subtle compared to the brilliant revelation of character by all the main actors, the authentic scenery (apart from one scene in the beautiful Canadian mountains that seems out of place in this story that takes place mainly in Missouri and Kentucky), and the superb direction. The director's subtlety makes the themes all the more powerful and drive home the irony of the title. Killer though he may be, Robert Ford is no coward, at least not as portrayed by Affleck and director Andrew Dominick. He's far too multifaceted for that. Part of his character is his covert homoerotic attraction to James. Homoeroticism is also one facet in the character of the hyper-sexual Dick Liddil, one of the several members of the James gang who escape James's murderous wrath. "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" is one of the year's best movies so far.