Great but no Peckinpah

Rating: 8/10 (14 December 2007)

Long, sonorous and portentous film about the last days of the outlaw, and the man who killed him. A beautiful and immaculately crafted piece of film-making, it nevertheless seemed to me to be less than the sum of its parts. It doesn't have the withering analysis of the corporate world which was being moved into place with the death of the West which makes Peckinpah's similarly themed films so interesting. We are left with a really rather ahistorical study of a young man who becomes disillusioned with the celebrity criminal he hero-worships. Jesse is a charismatic psychopath but the film sidesteps his virulent confederate racism. The acting is certainly committed and compelling, although a trifle self-regarding; at times, it seems like the film is a gambit from Brad Pitt to sell himself to consumers as a "movie great". Afflect's studied edgy twitchiness is potentially an irritating affectation, although it seemed to me an accomplished achievement by the end of the film.
It's a film with some great scenes and with real emotional impact. I just wish it had a little more historical or political substance.