Brad Pitt stars as legendary Wild West outlaw Jesse James.

Rating: 8/10 (27 April 2010)

The nervy style of this newfangled Western, with its eerie, insinuating score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, is so effective that long after Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck have left the screen, emotional disturbance lingers like gun smoke. The film is an account of the final years of the outlaw Jesse James, how he came to be slain by a member of his own gang, and the curious aftermath of his death.
The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford is ravishing looking, in muted tones that recall sepia-tinted photos, the story has a modern resonance; Affleck's grinning, sycophantic Ford is like a celebrity stalker-fan who goes to the extremes. Pitt's Jesse verges on psychosis, switching from charm to cold fury in an instant. This slow moving film, all showy vistas, field of waving corn and fast-moving clouds, aims for epic grandeur. But director Andrew Dominik also stages a night-time train robbery thrillingly. An elegy for the Old West, it is touched with brilliance throughout.