both amazing and annoying, it's a revisionist western with content and style

Rating: 7/10 (10 November 2007)

With maybe the longest title of any film this year, the Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, writer/director Andrew Dominik is out to make a real statement on the legacy of outlaw Jesse James and the man who shot him, Robert Ford. Was it murder or almost a kind of suicide? Was Bob Ford a hero, a coward, or just reluctant to get any of the press he originally might have wanted as a youth? Questions are raised legitimately by the filmmaker, and they aren't questions that shouldn't be overlooked. But there's a catch, actually a couple: as Dominik wants to stay truthful to the original source AND make an epic film, he makes a work that tells too much while also showing in a style that veers between the magisterial and the false. It's a subjective thing, to be sure, when looking at the cinematography of a film and how it is effective to the senses, though it could be something more legitimately arguable in looking at if it works for the material itself. These, of course, are the big minuses, which I'll get to in a moment.
But one aspect to 'Jesse James' that should be noteworthy all the way is Brad Pitt's performance. He's been a Hollywood star since I can remember, even going back to the mid-90s when he started to break out of character actor parts and into marquee status. Now here's a sort of throwback to the best work he's done as a quasi-chameleon and still with the gravitas of a star. It's a mesmerizing portrayal of a man who is as mysterious as he is deadly, psychotic, loving, paranoid, scary, crazy, affable, and even charming. Just a little facial movement or raise or lowering of the lip indicates so much, and Pitt nails it every time, even in scenes where he almost starts to drag along with the dialog. It is, at the least, worthwhile alone to see the film for him (maybe a little less so for the rest of the cast who, while good at what they do, are there as typical back-up western parts). Affleck is also a good co-star, who has to play mostly in one-note status (mostly pouty, like a nerdy kid on the playground who is scared s***-less but out for blood). But it is, at its best, the Brad Pitt show, which is rare to see as of late in his career.
In fact, it's probably Pitt that probably kept me in my seat through most of the film. Dominik's direction and writing are, on the other hand, a mixed bag. He wants to make a sprawling, affecting tome on the nature of a legend and of the effect it has on those around the person (who is, as Ford acknowledges, just a person), while coating it as an auteur. His tactic is to take as much narration possible, and it's literal overkill (no pun intended); we hear some moments when the narrator comments on Robert Ford looking through a closet! What does this add? It turns right from the start, and off and on until especially the last fifteen minutes, into a history lesson as much as a dramatization, which disrupts the intentions of making it a subjective perspective. OK, it's known, James was an icon for Americans as a figure of anti-establishment as part of a kind of establishment (not above the law but not one who should've been killed by a man of no consequence like Bob Ford). But does it need to be pounded over the head?
It doesn't help then that cinematographer Roger Deakins adds to the mixed feelings. He captures many wide vistas, tight rooms and dark night exteriors (I did love the train robbing shots) like a true pro. But what are we to make of the constant shots with soft-focus? The explanation I have read is that it's meant to represent the truth that is blurred by legend in the story. That's fine to hear after the fact, but while sitting and watching the movie it just doesn't make sense- it's less poetry and more a consistent form of drab self-indulgence. After seeing No Country for Old Men, where Deakins made, ironically, a better looking western set in 1980, it becomes clear that the directing has to also be taken into account.
And this goes without saying that it isn't a bad movie at all. Dominik does explore the themes at work here, with the damnation of betrayal and the fatality of the criminal, plus the side of America as a kind of hidden backdrop of pain and misery and fear of death. It's just that they're explored for too long and without the kind of depth that's really required. If you're looking for a real classic interpretation of the Jesse James/Robert Ford saga, watch I Shot Jesse James by Samuel Fuller. It might not have the aspirations of great art that 'Assassination' has, but in its B-movie way it's almost a masterpiece in examining some of the same material.