 List Price: $27.98
Lowest Price: $7.98 
Product Description: No Description Available.
Genre: Westerns
Rating: R
Release Date: 5-FEB-2008
Media Type: DVD Amazon.com: Of all the movies made about or glancingly involving the 19th-century outlaw Jesse Woodson James, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is the most reflective, most ambitious, most intricately fascinating, and indisputably most beautiful. Based on the novel of the same name by Ron Hansen, it picks up James late in his career, a few hours before his final train robbery, then covers the slow catastrophe of the gang's breakup over the next seven months even as the boss himself settles into an approximation of genteel retirement. But in another sense all of the movie is later than that. The very title assumes the audience's familiarity with James as a figure out of history and legend, and our awareness that he was--will be--murdered in his parlor one quiet afternoon by a backshooting crony. The film--only the second to be made by New Zealand–born writer-director Andrew Dominik--reminds us that Dominik's debut film, Chopper (2000), was the cunningly off-kilter portrait of another real-life criminal psychopath who became a kind of rock star to his society. The Jesse James of this telling is no Robin Hood robbing the rich to give to the poor, and that train robbery we witness is punctuated by acts of gratuitous brutality, not gallantry. Nineteen-year-old Bob Ford (Casey Affleck) seeks to join the James gang out of hero worship stoked by the dime novels he secretes under his bed, but his glam hero (Brad Pitt) is a monster who takes private glee in infecting his accomplices with his own paranoia, then murdering them for it. In the careful orchestration of James's final moments, there's even a hint that he takes satisfaction in his own demise. Affleck and Pitt (who co-produced with Ridley Scott, among others) are mesmerizing in the title roles, but the movie is enriched by an exceptional supporting cast: Sam Shepard as Jesse's older, more stable brother Frank; Sam Rockwell as Bob Ford's own brother Charlie, whose post-assassination descent into madness is astonishing to behold; Paul Schneider, Garret Dillahunt, and Jeremy Renner as three variously doomed gang members; and Mary-Louise Parker, who as Jesse's wife Zee has few lines yet manages with looks and body language to invoke a wellnigh-novelistic backstory for herself. There are also electrifying cameos by James Carville, doing solid actorly work as the governor of Missouri; Ted Levine, as a lawman of antic spirit; and Nick Cave, composer of the film's score (with Warren Ellis) and screenwriter of the Aussie "Western" The Proposition, suddenly towering over a late scene to perform the folk song that set the terms for the book and movie's title. Still, the real costar is Roger Deakins, probably the finest cinematographer at work today. The landscapes of the movie (mostly in Alberta and Manitoba) will linger in the memory as long as the distinctive faces, and we seem to feel the sting of its snows on our cheeks. Interior scenes are equally persuasive. Few Westerns have conveyed so tangibly the bleakness and austerity of the spaces people of the frontier called home, and sought in vain to warm with human spirit. --Richard T. Jameson Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-08
Great Actors. Boring Movie!
This movie was so boring!! The actors in this movie do the best with what they have. It took me 3 tries before i actually got to sit down and watch the entire movie. Mostly, because i kept getting bored and cutting it off. Brad Pitt carries this movie most of the way but it's entirely to slow paced. This is not a movie, this is actually a documentary pretending to be a movie. They should have made a documentary about the Life and Death of Jesse James. Brad Pitt could have even narrated. That's basically all this is anyway. Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-07
Terrible Brad what were you thinking?
I don't know what is going on here but I think Brad got together a bunch of his buddies and made a movie with him in it so they could have a shot at making some money. This is a boring terribly acted movie. I wanted someone to assassinate me just to keep from having to watch this POS. I feel ripped off. I bought the BD because I was duped by brads previous performances and the encouragement of a western genre with Jesse James as the focus.....NOT! I feel so used. I can't take enough showers to get the smell off of me. Anybody want to buy a BD cheap? Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-04
A Haunting Masterpiece
If you don't like this movie, then you are probably not a movie lover. However, if you are someone who appreciates all the composite details of a movie such as the richness of the dialog, the choice of cast, the cinematography and the musical score then this film will stay with you for some time.
The way this beautiful film moves along makes it a haunting masterpiece. It also reinforces that in our overload of entertainment options such brilliant objects can easily be lost in the mud since it only took in $4 million at the box office. Regardless, everyone involved in this shoot knows that they were part of a memorable and wonderful piece of art. Rating:
Date: 2008-07-01
Never gets any better
I am sorry, based on the reviews this should have been a good movie and mayby it is, but four of us sat down to watch it, and it moved so slooooooowwww, after an hour we all looked at each other and decided to see if it got any better, NOT. We didn't even finish it. It might be factual and the most accurate account of the death of Jesse James, but do they have to kill the viewers? I am surprised based on this film that he didn't commit suicide if his life was so boring....
Wish I could get my $20 dollars back. Rating:
Date: 2008-06-29
The Best Film of 2007
Amidst the bevy of western-themed films that emerged in 2007 (including Seraphim Falls, No Country for Old Men, 3:10 to Yuma (Widescreen Edition), and There Will Be Blood), I found "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" to be the finest film I had seen in many months.
"No Country for Old Men", "Seraphim Falls" and "3:10 to Yuma" fall into the broad category of action/suspense films. They rely on fast-paced action and taut suspense to weave a compelling tale.
"The Assassination of Jesse James" is more along the lines of "There Will Be Blood" in that it's a lengthy, intellectual film with electrifying performances by Brad Pitt and Daniel Day-Lewis, respectively.
My point is that to compare any of the previous films to "Jesse James" or "Blood" would be akin to (excuse the cliche) comparing apples and oranges.
With that in mind, I'll personally take "Jesse James" over "Blood" anyday. It's beautifully shot, wonderfully scripted, and takes a more realistic approach to the last days of the outlaw's life.
Judging from a good deal of the negative reviews here, it appears the majority of audiences would prefer a testosterone-fueled mad-cap action romp in the style of The Long Riders rather than a thoughtful, deeper interpretation of Jesse James.
That's not surprising, considering audiences can't get enough of Michael Bay films or uninspired Johnny Depp star vehicles - yet ask anyone on the streets about Robert Bresson or Ingmar Bergman and they are likely to ask "Who??"
Still, the one misconception I'd like to dispell about "The Assassination of Jesse James" is that it is "slow paced" or "too long". Though the film is right at three hours, I found the film to be resolutely paced and I wouldn't have deleted a single scene. For instance, I was pleased the film didn't simply end with the death of Jesse James, but instead followed through with the remainder of Robert Ford's life.
I cannot recommend a better western-themed film from 2007 to add to your collection! |
