A monster and a kid

Rating: 5/10 (23 November 2017)

There's a complex nature to this Western, but it is poorly thought out in respect to what the directorial team tries to accomplish.
The title is as misleading as possible. In this story, Robert Ford is a mixed up kid, and any cowardice on his part is simply animal survival instincts. He worships Jesse James, who turns out to be a complete monster, void of natural instincts and natural motivation.
Jesse's motivation is pure demonic possession, nothing more. The animal instinct of eliminating the weak from the pack is lost in him. He wants to eliminate, but he has not the slightest idea on how to judge what is weak.
And truly it is lost in human beings, for whatever reason. There are actual people, and I'm sure most people of this era have met them, who have no motivation that is natural. They simply are possessed of demons, and are determined to play God with other people's lives, without the slightest natural instinct of how to do it.
Such is the case with Jesse in this movie, and that much is depicted correctly, although the old History books make it seem that Frank James was the "God playing" brother, while Jesse may have been more likely to relent.
Still, as depicted in this movie, that part succeeds. Jesse is a monster.
However, for some reason, the ending indicates that Jesse was a winner because his corpse was paraded around and people got to applaud the end of a monster. Jesse wasn't there. Just his rotten corpse in all its humility, scoffed at by those who were glad a monster no longer lived among them.
For some reason, the director-writer team seemed to believe this made Jesse superior to Ford, because Ford didn't have to contend with the notion that his corpse would be vilified some day. An odd thought that only makes sense to those brain dead sheep who think they do have the natural instincts of an animal, yet are as poor to judge as the Jesse of this movie was.
Some hits, some misses.