Little Action And Limited Dialogue In A Movie Almost Totally Devoid Of Passion

Rating: 2/10 (17 January 2009)

As I sat for almost three hours struggling to make it through this snooze fest I struggled to figure out how so many people can have so many good things to say about this movie. For some inexplicable reason, the longest and most boring movies often seem to be the most highly regarded (almost as if people think that there's some sort of artistic value in being able to put together a movie so long and yet so dull) but come on. For a movie with such a dramatic sounding title, this one is a major disappointment. There's very little action in it, the dialogue is extremely limited and delivered in a passionless monotone most of the way through, the sombre and slow musical score adds to the drudgery and even the narration is offered in a voice reminiscent of an elderly college professor who's gone over the same material year after year for decades and can't wait to retire and finally be rid of it. I thought Brad Pitt would put more energy into the role of the famous outlaw Jesse James, but he comes across as dry as the rest of the movie. Ben Affleck was maybe slightly more intriguing as Robert Ford but not much.
The movie begins with the James gang's last major job and documents the beginning of the relationship between Ford and James. From the little I know about Jesse James the movie seems to be fairly accurate, but the focus of the movie is more on Ford and his gradual turning against James, leading up - as the title states - to James' killing. The look at Ford's life after James' killing was a bit interesting, although a lot was left out between the end of the stage show Ford and his brother put together that portrayed the killing and Ford's own demise (mercifully so, given the already excessive length of this production.) Needless to say, I didn't care too much for this movie. 2/10