oh well....

Rating: 5/10 (20 April 2008)

let me start off with the good stuff. this is a breath-taking realistic portrayal of the wild west. the gun sounds are authentic, without any Hollywood soundboard idiot messing it up, there's no gun flashes, instead you get smoke (like in reality kids) the sets are all wonderfully realistic, and beautifully crafted, the actors are crafting masterful characterizations. yet... it all seems to have fallen apart on the cutting board. i came to IMDb, and people write how Robert ford was demoralized by the train robbery. i didn't see that. seemed like it was Jesse James himself who took a disliking on the kid, had him mop the floors for him, and then kicked him out of the gang. or something along those lines. it was very muddled. i'm not an American and haven't watched any Jesse James movies though. and i don't know the story either.
anyways, the first half of the movie started off nice, then got all muddled and started tearing off in all directions, keeping you trying to tie all the loose story ends together while simultaneously listening to what Mr. storyteller is saying, before just crashing off into nothing special, and finally, and thankfully ending. then the second hour started, and it seemed, finally some real story started unfolding. still a bit muddled, but a lot more coherent storytelling that actually tried to go somewhere, you can almost feel the spine-tingling tension building up to the climax. its almost like two separate movies actually.