...it's got a title that perfectly matches its subject matter: They're both too long by half.
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Isn't there a law in Hollywood forbidding movie titles that are too long to fit on a marquee? Maybe not. But there ought to be. I can think of only a few exceptions: "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying"; "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"; "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"; "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." But these were all comedies, and they could get away with it. However, the 2007 release "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" is hardly a comedy. In any case, it's got a title that perfectly matches its subject matter: They're both too long by half.
Although this movie is a big-budget affair with a notable cast that includes Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell, Mary-Louise Parker, Sam Shepard, Michael Parks, even James Carville, Warner Bros. chose to release it in a limited run and then pulled it rather quickly. As a result, it didn't come near any motion-picture theaters in my area, so I watched it for the first time on DVD. This is a shame because it looks as though a person should really see the movie on a big screen; its visual splendor is the best part of the show.
In "The Assassination of Jesse James" writer and director Andrew Dominik ("Chopper"), who adapted the screenplay from a book by Ron Hansen, and director of photography Roger Deakins seem to have striven consciously to make an art-house picture, which isn't a bad thing. Sure, I know that characterization may not even be accurate, but what I mean by it is that the filmmakers seem to have purposely emphasized aesthetics, character relationships, tone, and sparse conversations over pure action. If it's action you want in your Jesse James saga, try "The Long Riders." Dominik's version wants you to look at and admire the atmosphere, the mood, and the scenery, all whilst you ruminate on the vagaries of the dialogue. Be that as it may, it seems to me that Robert Altman and Sam Peckinpah already did this kind of thing in "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" and "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid" and did it better.
Anyway, clearly the filmmakers mean for "The Assassination of Jesse James" to be a poetic evocation of the legendary outlaw, an elegy, if you will, and even the characters in the movie speak poetically. The photography is wide, grand, and imposing, sensitively composed, with hints of blur and mist and soft, pastel shadings. You'll find a multitude of wide open spaces and handsome landscapes, plus any number of seeming digressions amidst an abundance of quiet moments. The soundtrack music is lyrical as well, soft and slow, mostly solo piano. And like a lot of poetry, the film moves slowly, deliberately, albeit sometimes too leisurely along.
What's more, we get a voice-over narration. Oddly, the film does not show us as much of the plot line as it might, instead telling us much of it, with a narrator speaking over the visuals. In a way, then, the movie comes off like an artistic documentary; yet with its abundance of fine actors, it seems something of a puzzle why the filmmakers didn't let the characters reveal to us more of their own story. So, the narrator starts by telling us about Jesse: "He considered himself a Southern loyalist and guerilla in a Civil War that never ended. He regretted neither his robberies nor the seventeen murders that he laid claim to."
The tale begins on Sept. 7, 1881, near Blue Cut, Missouri, just before the James gang's final big railroad holdup. Jesse was thirty-four years old, and it would be one more year before Bob Ford gunned him down. The movie covers that final year.
By this time all the original members of the James gang but Jesse and his brother Frank were dead or in prison, and it's now that Bob Ford tries to join up. Bob's brother Charley was already a member of the gang, and young Bob, nineteen, wanted more than anything to ride with them. Why? As Bob explains it, he's been a nobody all his life and wants to be a somebody. But more particularly, it's because he has a case of hero worship going. Ever since Bob was a kid he was obsessed with Jesse, having collected every dime novel and every newspaper and magazine clipping about him. He wants to be just like Jesse. He wants to be Jesse.
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