Very Disappointing -- Needs a serious edit

Rating: 2/10 (2 August 2009)

I was very disappointed with this film. The pacing is slow, very slow. The narration is ponderous and should have been unnecessary, or at least greatly reduced. The film is long.
There is nothing shown about Jessie James that explains why the American populace treated him as a hero. There is nothing in the film to support the narrator's suggestion that he gave money to the poor, or cared about anyone outside of his immediate family. Did I mention the film is long?
The cinematography is ... wide open spaces ... lots of shots of tall dry grass ... and a way overused "technique" -- a focused circle surrounded by out of focus. The focus effect made no sense whatsoever. Was it supposed to be how Jessie saw the world? How Ford did?
The music only added to the slowness. Way too many sad slow violins and other strings. The music is lifeless and so is the film. Perhaps that was the point, if so it still could have been made in less time. Hey have you heard how long, and slow, and morose this film is?
I kept expecting it to pick up, or for there to be some twist, something beyond what is told in the title. There was not. It was like a bad documentary, only even a bad documentary would have been edited so that it moved faster. It should have run 40 minutes shorter. At least.