Expected a whole lot more.

Rating: 2/10 (25 June 2008)

Lackluster would be the best word I can think of to describe this film. The only thing that might have helped compensate for the endless morbidity, slow pace, depressing soundtrack and emotionally stunted characters would have been a bit of comic relief. Of course, that wouldn't fit the dark, morose and somber celebration of criminals in the American west. Besides feeling empty at the end of this long, long, long movie, I was absolutely bewildered by the apparently historical narration that painted the public as admiring Jesse. They paid to see the house where he was shot. They bought his portrait in death. They petitioned the governor to pardon the man who killed Jesse's assassin, and he did! What is wrong with this country? Oh, I forgot. This is the same nation that reelected Nixon and Bush.