7/10. Whilst it has flaws, the portrayal and story more than compensate

Rating: 7/10 (5 September 2012)

I don't need to do much explanation of what this film is about as it's in the title. To make that huge title larger and fill in all the of the film's exploits it would go something like this: "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert FordÂ… and the preceding build-up of a few robberies, James relationship with his fellow robbers (especially Ford) and a slight look into the aftermath". I'm not sure if this was a considered title, though I should add that there is a 4 hour version of this film with which Mr Pitt won the Venice Film Festival's best lead for, so perhaps it was an idea.
2007. Starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck. Directed by Andrew Dominik.
I'm sure this film wouldn't be half as good as it was if it wasn't for one man: Casey Affleck. He received an Oscar Nomination for Best Supporting Actor and he steals the show from right under Brad Pitt's feet. He lost out to Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men, which I will begrudgingly say is fair as it was top notch, but in my awards it goes down as Affleck in my awards. I'll start by saying that while he tops the list it is not to say that everyone else is poor. All the cast are on top form here including Sam Rockwell. I'd say Brad Pitt does a fantastic job portraying James' paranoia, outlandishness and pure cool grit. But Affleck is just too good here; every single one of his scenes is played perfectly. Every aspect of Ford's character is played out stunningly: his admiration of James, his slyness, his boyish tendencies while trying to look like James. The message is just thrown out of the screen at you that this is a boy in a man's body looking for a name for himself. The last few scenes do not allow for much acting to be done by Affleck in terms of screen time but his change of character is outstanding. He completely removes that boyish dreamer and replaces it with a man filled with deep regret and hatred.
The other Oscar nomination was for Best Achievement in Cinematography. Put simply it looks good. Even from the poster you can see that the setup is great. Its outdoor shots are very panoramic with the great sweeping Wild West backdrop all trod along by horseback with Pitt swanning around looking cool as can be. The film proceeds over a large time scale and goes through the seasons, each looking remarkable when caught on camera, with my favourite being the snowy mountain background as Pitt's character becomes more paranoid and restless. It lost that Oscar to one of my favourite films "There Will Be Blood"
Now I have to say for all these good points there are quite a few bad that weigh it down a fair bit. The first thing that frustrated me a lot was the dialogue. The language in the film was obviously going to be a difficult issue with it being set in the late 1800's, but not this much. A lot of the lines seem to not be vocalised well (I watched a DVD version) and some of the language was just gibberish to me, so every now and then I lost the plot and had to go back and use subtitles.
This is not my biggest annoyance with this though. That comes down to a rather simple thing used 2 or 3 times in the film. Right at the start a narrator speaks a bit about the previous goings on of James and his gang. I don't mind this as the film is already quite long and can understand why producers feel the need to trim. The issue comes when the narrator starts to describe a few of Fords ideas and feelings. Only for a few seconds or perhaps a minute at a time but this still infuriates me. The idea of a film, and why a film can work better than a book, is that you see a characters emotions there in front of, you see what it feels and you can connect with the character while putting yourself in its place. This use of a narrator seems lazy to me, as the writer of the film cannot find a situation for the actor to express himself he/she just sticks in a bit of dialogue and Affleck looking sad. If you can't find a scene just have the character do a monologue or express his feelings to another character in a big chunk.
The only way a film can be any good at all is with some underlying depth or an idea or concept that the viewer must understand and take a meaning from; I enjoyed Prometheus because of how it makes us think about ourselves in terms of our real nature and what shows us to be human. This is what makes or kills a film for me and this film, while not having a real depth, has a good idea in it. "How can a man kill his hero". That is what this film is mainly all about. It gives you Ford's world and shows his life. It puts you in his shoes and shows you how a man goes from idolisation of a man-myth, to realising the only way to be him is to kill him and fall finally into a pit of regret over youthful stupidity.