A Glowing Jewel in a Sea of Cinematic Darkness...

Rating: 10/10 (16 February 2009)

The Assassination of Jesse James was very well produced and executed but the overlaying narration by Hugh Ross of the masterfully written prose of Ron Hansen makes watching the movie a truly unique experience.
The movie adapted to screen and directed by Andrew Dominik stands out in several aspects. From the wonderfully interwoven soundtrack to the magnificently picturesque cinematography to the superbly method performances by Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck (who turned out to be a pleasant surprise for me). It is a slow moving film but you barely notice the time passing by when you become entranced in the story, that is, a story of the more genuine and believable type of the American "West" and the infamous American outlaw gangs. This movie does little to romanticize the genre (not typical of Westerns - although I wouldn't even call it a "Western") but, rather, presents a much more human side to the gun-slinging, horse-riding, train-robbing part of our country's history.
In today's big-business "fast-food era" Hollywood, when all that can satisfy the appetite of the masses is 20 scenes per second special effects one after the other, you can't help but notice an eroding taste for culture and cinematic delicacy. That is why it is so refreshing that a movie like this comes along every once in a while, through which we realize that all is not lost.
As of recently, I would put this movie in a category with three other movies that share this special quality of genuineness. Three glowing jewels in a sea of cinematic darkness: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; The Namesake; and Into the Wild.
Bon Appetit!