Jesse James

Rating: 9/10 (30 January 2008)

Epoch Movies sometimes fall into a pit, where the mechanics of moving back in time has more to do with showing characters dressed in the days of old and portraying social poses than conveying a genuine epoch feeling. This is of course arguable since the spirit of a time now dead is impossible to show; but maybe it can be emulated, suggested more than defined - and of course, the more vague it gets the more dependent it becomes of the viewer's own predisposition do see it, understand it or "connect" to it. For me "Jesse James..." works at this level portraying with accuracy something both palpable and vague that transcends the curiosities, the costumes, the surface of what we see  the spirit rather than the materiality; very intimate, passionate and yet strangely detached. These were the men of the days that are gone. The awkwardness of those days bursts in the beginning, as a strange locomotive fills the the dark woods with light, and this synthesizes the overall mood for the picture: the direction, the cutting, the photography, the actors - and their meager lines -, are in a perfect unison.
I remember "The Proposition" and the parallels that can be traced between (appart from Nick Cave): both movies use a similar visual technique, with long shots of the wilderness, small lines, subtle score and loose editing. The big difference is perhaps the voice over in "Jesse James...", a narrator that works almost like an historian and brings us closer to the characters and their inner feelings.
Brad Pitt has good leading role  the best in the last years  looking a matured actor, and Casey Affleck has the first big opportunity to show what he's got  and he delivers.