There’s a war on the screen of The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (TAOJJBTCRF) and it’s contained within the performance of Brad Pitt as the titular victim of assassination. Pitt is as charming and larger than life as he’s ever been. But it’s a quiet ominous performance and whenever he walks in a room people go silent and catastrophe seems eminent. Like the greatest of movie characters he’s a paradox; gregarious and sullen. Dwarfed by his own legend. Other men both love and despise him and it’s fascinating to watch as they compete for his attention even while they scheme against him.

On the other side of things is Casey Affleck as the coward Robert Ford. His admiration of Jesse James borders on the psychopathic. He’s a pathetic peon convinced of his own destiny.
Also notable in the cast is Paul Shnieder who is great as Dick Liddil as the menacing womanizing given to poetry, Sam Rockwell as Ford’s Brother. Sam Shepard as the eldest James Brother. The characters are a particular sort. They’re humble farmer types, given to story telling speaking in a strange dialectic mix of Victorian manners and brutish quasi literacy. And occasionally they remind us that they are murderous thugs unafraid to turn on anyone in their pursuit of a dubious sort of fame. James rules over them like an alpha gorilla.
The movie is not about the legend of Jesse James but rather his mundane ignominious undoing. The events don’t resemble a western shoot out, they’re about a petty group of men back stabbing and gossiping.
One of my favorite films from last year was The Proposition a “new wave” western, set in the wastelands of Australia, that managed to be oddly beautiful despite it’s stark, ugly brutality. The TAOJJBTCRF is a similar take on the genre. They share a stark unconventional setting (this one’s set in the American Midwest), a pitch perfect and memorable score by Nick Cave. A lot is being made of the influence of Terrence Malik but I don’t see it myself. Roger Deakins cinematography work is some of the most memorable as of late but it’s stark and minimalist in a way that beautifully compliments the subject matter. And when the film enters poetic territory it doesn’t come from the landscape but the human beings at the mercy of it. Consider the following two scenes: Jesse James shooting at the ice, his gun shots echoing off the mountain ranges. And the nighttime horseback ride while the doomed Eddie Miller contemplates the stars above right before things turn ugly.
TAOJJBTCRF is an near perfect movie that unfortunately slows almost to a halt during a stretch towards the end where the boys hide out at the James homestead and things unravel at their worst before hitting their anti-climax. It also suffers from too many endings syndrome (see Return of the King. see Brazil. see Brazil the Directors Cut), but one of my favorite bits from the movie is Robert Ford on stage playing himself in TAOJJBTCRF The Musical. Is the film over narrated? Probably, but the narration as read by Hugh Ross (never heard of him) is so great I can’t complain. A compelling well acted cinematic epic, this is my favorite film so far this year.

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