A gorgeous, complex western with wonderful acting

Rating: 10/10 (22 July 2009)

Finally, I watched one of the movies I've always wanted to see, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. This film, directed by Andrew Dominik, is a poetic, beautifully shot masterpiece of a Western, with great psychological depth -- and one of my new all-time favorites. The characters feel real, not black and white, heroes or villains, but like actual people. Brad Pitt's (at last) excellent as Jesse James, the legendary outlaw who's losing his grip, health and skill (and perhaps mind, too), and sees an opportunity for an escape and an honorary way out in his young, unbalanced admirer, Robert Ford (always wonderful Casey Affleck). Jesse manipulates him skillfully and when Bob Ford, disillusioned and abandoned, walks away, only to return later (as the movie's title suggests), are all his moves and emotions orchestrated by Jesse. This is a film with quite a few surprises, with spellbinding cinematography, and with a very ironic title... as in the end, it's not Bob Ford who's the coward at all. At the same time, it's also a chilling tale of hero worship and its dangers -- something that Pitt himself must have had a brush with, in the form of stalkers.
All in all, one can't but feel pity for the young Robert Ford who longs to be with Jesse, and when that fails, hopes to be him. Just seeing the calculating looks Jesse gives him send chills down one's spine. Bob Ford is, quite simply, corrupted by the older man, and along the way, he loses his innocence and his soul, while granting Jesse James immortality and the heroic death he always wanted.