The Assassination of Jesse James by the "Coward" Robert Ford

Rating: 10/10 (15 March 2016)

"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" should hold no surprises. I mean, the end of the movie is spoiled for you in the title... right? Well, if that's what you thought then you would be dead wrong, because this film is thought- provoking, sad, beautiful, and thoroughly tense from beginning to end, even though there is not much shooting in this long film.
Robert Ford has grown up reading books and hearing stories about the courageous Robert Ford and has grown incredibly obsessed with him, even though he has never met him. When Rob goes with his brother Charlie to finally meet Jesse, he is understandably excited. However, as we, and Rob, come to find out, Jesse is only a human, like the rest of us. And he is not exactly the courageous outlaw he has heard about. Jesse is temperamental, depressed, and even sadistic, and he feels pain just like the rest of us. He is a man that hates himself even though everyone else idolizes him. Robert himself is not perfect either. He is insecure, young, and unbelievably obsessed with Jesse James, to the point where he wants to be him. In fact, the connections Robert tries to make with him about the facts of both their lives are so arbitrary that it's genuinely unsettling. Robert assassinates Jesse for many reasons (in possibly the best scene in the film), one unspoken one being that Jesse actually wants to be killed, but after the assassination, Robert finds himself hoping for glory for what he's done. He even makes a play about the assassination, starring him and his brother, to glorify it. However, what he gets is far from glory. As Jesse's body is toured around the U.S.A., Robert begins to be chastised as a coward, and Robert is more alone, angry, and confused in his whole life than he has ever been.
This whole film wouldn't work without the fantastic performances from everyone in the cast (especially Brad Pitt, in his best role yet) and by the fantastic direction that combine to make even a simple conversation incredibly tense. Also, the beautiful cinematography by Roger Deakins makes this something special, showing the wild west in a more dark and gloomy manner than we're used to. It also highlights the way we view history, with the edges of the frame blurred, through a rather subjective point of view.
On top of all of that, this film is important because it exposes how our society views famous people. We don't exactly view them as people. We idolize them and strive to be like them, when truthfully we don't know the first thing about them or who they are. We label Jesse James as a courageous man and Robert Ford as a coward, when really both are just humans. Jesse James may seem like a good man but he has genuine flaws likethe rest of us, and Robert Ford may seem like a coward, but he has good qualities that we never even bother to try and see. Even though Robert makes a reenactment of the assassination on Broadway and thousands of people see it, we could never put ourselves into the actual situation. We could get together and put a man to death without the man ever being given a chance to be understood. We may tell ourselves that he is a "coward", but what we don't realize is that "Robert Ford could only lay on the floor and look at the ceiling. The light going out of his eyes, before he could find the right words."