the blog of nathan loding

The Assas­si­na­tion Of Jesse James By The Cow­ard Robert Ford (2007)
Star­ring: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rock­well
Directed by: Andrew Dominik
Writ­ten by: Andrew Dominik, Ron Hansen (novel)
Rated: R
Rat­ing: 5 (five out of five)

When a movie begins with a voice over nar­ra­tion, I can’t help but shud­der slightly.  Voice over’s are rarely used in a way that works, and when it does work, the ques­tion still remains of why it was there in the first place.  There are notable excep­tions that I can eas­ily think of:  Amelie, The Shaw­shank Redemp­tion, or The Royal Ten­nen­baums – all use VO nar­ra­tion extremely well.  VO nar­ra­tion can eas­ily destroy a movie, as seen in cer­tain cuts of Blade Run­ner or the lat­est Trans­for­rm­ers movie.

When The Assas­si­na­tion Of Jesse James started with voice over work, com­bined with it’s run­time of 160 min­utes (appar­ently cut down from over four hours!) – I began sweating.

I’m happy to report that the nar­ra­tion is not only apro­pos for the story, but it’s also so well writ­ten, read, and timed that it makes the movie a true masterpiece.

The story seems painfully obvi­ous from the title.  It is, indeed, about the assas­si­na­tion of the infa­mous out­law Jesse James by his own gang mem­ber Robert Ford.  On the sur­face, that is all it is.  In real­ity it is so much more.

This is a beau­ti­ful char­ac­ter study.

The story begins with one of the James Gang’s last robbery’s – a train rob­bery in Blue Cut, MO, in 1881.  Jesse (Pitt) is already part leg­end at this point, with his name and made-up deeds grac­ing the dime store nov­els across the country.

The voice over nar­ra­tion has already intro­duced us to Jesse.  Into the serene moments before the rob­bery, enter Robert Ford (Affleck).  He’s given no grace­ful intro­duc­tion.  Instead he enters awkwardly.

Ford is full of hero wor­ship.  He idol­izes the James Gang, espe­cially Jesse.  He wants noth­ing more than to be a part of the Gang, to be a part of Jesse’s life, to be a part of that leg­end – to be the leg­end him­self.  He wants noth­ing more than to be Jesse.

His wor­ship has reached such an incred­i­ble height that it’s crossed the line into lust.  Jesse is decid­edly straight, and a con­sum­ma­tion of the affair is impos­si­ble.  Both par­ties know how it must end.

After the Blue Cut train rob­bery, Jesse splits from his Gang and spends time home with his wife.  There are moments of Jesse as a fam­ily man.  There are moments of Jesse as the Gang leader.  Both are in stark con­trast with each other.

All the while is Ford, lin­ger­ing in the back­ground, bring­ing the doomed con­clu­sion ever closer.  Jesse’s para­noia and sus­pi­cions of his own gang mem­bers grows and he begins to loose sleep.  His end is known to him.

On one quiet Mon­day in 1882, the inevitable occurs.  In recorded his­tory, Jesse took of his coat, then removed his guns so his neigh­bors would not become sus­pi­cious of him.  He notices that a pic­ture isn’t hang­ing quite straight, as he stands on a chair to level the frame, Ford takes the shot.  This movie presents it in a sig­nif­i­cantly dif­fer­ent light – how could Jesse have not know what was com­ing when he knew every­thing else?  He was able to skip town days before the police arrived.  He was able to flee a scene moments before the heavy artillery came in.  Why didn’t he flee the moment Ford entered his life and his fate was decided?

The rest of the movie is a poem, and ode of sorts to the ragged life that Ford and his brother Charley (Rock­well), who was present for every­thing, lead until their respec­tive ends.

The final lines of nar­ra­tion are perfection.

At a run­time of 160 min­utes, and with a quiet, delib­er­ate pace, it’s not a movie that the masses of 2008/2009 are look­ing for.  It’s rem­i­nis­cent of old-time epics, where the land­scape is a char­ac­ter of it’s own (thanks to Roger Deakins gor­geous cinematography).

This is a ridicu­lously good film.  Beau­ti­ful.  Tragic.  Poetic.