Slow, very realistic, almost documentary-style adaptation with brilliant acting and music

Rating: 7/10 (24 September 2017)

This is a slow, beautifully acted western which is a very realistic and faithful adaptation of an actual historical event. To be honest, it is a bit difficult to relate to the principal characters and the themes are very specific to the era which are not much applicable today. Glorification of criminals (especially charismatic gun- slinging cowboys) is not something that is relevant today, and the movie only touches on this theme towards the very end.
The movie is beautifully shot, the background music is stirring and perfectly matches the events, the ensemble cast is brilliant and both Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck give good performances. Brad Pitt generally only plays one type of character-the charismatic, confident, commanding leader-and Jesse James perfectly matches that archetype, although I think that Pitt's efforts to show how broken Jesse is inside do not quite hit the mark and are not very effective. Further, every other character is terrified of Jesse but we do not actually see him doing much, which is slightly puzzling. Casey Affleck is also good, but the jump from Robert Ford adoring Jesse James to Robert Ford suddenly deciding to assassinate Jesse at any cost is a bit abrupt and not very convincing.
The assassination scene itself is very strange, in fact Jesse's entire behavior leading to the assassination scene is very puzzling, almost as if he had already given up on his life which does not quite match his character. Motivations are not effectively conveyed, and one has to carefully consider the events to infer them. But perhaps that is intentional, as the focus of the movie seems to be just relate the facts and events in an almost documentary-style. The movie is really long and depicts in great detail a number of extraneous events involving other members of the James gang which are only tangentially related to the central narrative. In spite of all the complaints though, I was utterly captivated throughout its entire length, and the acting and music and the gravitas of the characters makes up for all the other shortcomings.