...it's got a title that perfectly matches its subject matter: They're both too long by half.
Brad Pitt plays Jesse in a half-smoldering, half-scowling manner that shows the actor is trying his best to make people take him seriously. Now, if only the script had given him something more to say. As it is, this Jesse is a warmhearted family man on the one hand and a cold-blooded killer on the other. But the script never provides any reasons for the dichotomy. Pitt's Jesse is an eternal enigma, a man who regrets the life he's led, changing his name to Thomas Howard, moving from place to place in his final years, and becoming ever more paranoid by the day. With a price on his head, he trusts no one, especially not his old partners. Jesse is continually suspicious, ambiguous, and melancholy, a man contemplating the meaninglessness of his life, a man often on the verge of suicide. Indeed, the movie suggests that Jesse may have even prompted his own death by providing Bob Ford the gun and the opportunity to kill him.
Casey Affleck is impressive as the central character, Robert Ford. We can feel the pain in his eyes when Jesse and Frank turn him down for a place in the gang, when Jesse fails to respond to his need for friendship, when the law asks him to keep an eye on Jesse, and when he finally turns the gun on his idol.
Then, too, the cast handles the smaller parts well, like Sam Rockwell as Bob's older brother Charley, a goofy sort who becomes more depressed as the story goes on, and Sam Shepard in a small role as Frank James, a tough, crotchety sort.
All of this would have worked better, however, if the thing weren't so long. "The Assassination of Jesse James" goes on for 160 minutes, most of it talk. Sure, there are some interesting conversations and the scenery is gorgeous and the silences are telling. But in the end, we get the feeling that the filmmakers have spent an awfully long time telling a simple and familiar story, with few or no new insights.
Video:
For a standard-definition release, the picture quality is good, and upscaled (which I tried for a few minutes) it's even better. Using a reasonably high bit rate and an anamorphic transfer, WB's video engineers maintain the film's original 2.40:1 aspect ratio and ensure that everything on the screen gets topflight treatment. The director seems to have intentionally drained the colors slightly to provide a colder, gloomier, and at the same time more old-timey feel, and the images come off a touch glassy. Other than that, facial tones are fairly natural, even though they are a bit washed out, and object delineation is reasonably sharp. Film grain is minimum.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack displays an ample front-channel stereo spread and a wide-ranging frequency response, with an impressively robust bass line. The audio engineers use the rear channels effectively for gunshots, crowd noises, and musical ambience reinforcement, but it's never overdone, meaning it's rather thin along these lines. The music is most always a quiet piano, as I've said, and the violence is far less than you might imagine. Midrange detailing is fine, and highs, when present on occasion, sparkle.
Extras:
If you're looking for extras, there aren't any. No major extras, anyhow. I guess WB figured the movie being so long and transferred at such a high bit rate, it took up too much space for anything else. Or they didn't have anything else to include. Who knows. What we get are a few trailers for other Warner products at start-up only; thirty-seven scene selections but no chapter insert; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.
Parting Shots:
"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" comes through in the end, its final thirty minutes at least partially justifying one's time. But that first two hours and ten minutes can sometimes become more than a little tedious.
"Well, Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life,
Three children they were brave,
But that dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard
Has laid poor Jesse in his grave."
Casey Affleck is impressive as the central character, Robert Ford. We can feel the pain in his eyes when Jesse and Frank turn him down for a place in the gang, when Jesse fails to respond to his need for friendship, when the law asks him to keep an eye on Jesse, and when he finally turns the gun on his idol.
Then, too, the cast handles the smaller parts well, like Sam Rockwell as Bob's older brother Charley, a goofy sort who becomes more depressed as the story goes on, and Sam Shepard in a small role as Frank James, a tough, crotchety sort.
All of this would have worked better, however, if the thing weren't so long. "The Assassination of Jesse James" goes on for 160 minutes, most of it talk. Sure, there are some interesting conversations and the scenery is gorgeous and the silences are telling. But in the end, we get the feeling that the filmmakers have spent an awfully long time telling a simple and familiar story, with few or no new insights.
Video:
For a standard-definition release, the picture quality is good, and upscaled (which I tried for a few minutes) it's even better. Using a reasonably high bit rate and an anamorphic transfer, WB's video engineers maintain the film's original 2.40:1 aspect ratio and ensure that everything on the screen gets topflight treatment. The director seems to have intentionally drained the colors slightly to provide a colder, gloomier, and at the same time more old-timey feel, and the images come off a touch glassy. Other than that, facial tones are fairly natural, even though they are a bit washed out, and object delineation is reasonably sharp. Film grain is minimum.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack displays an ample front-channel stereo spread and a wide-ranging frequency response, with an impressively robust bass line. The audio engineers use the rear channels effectively for gunshots, crowd noises, and musical ambience reinforcement, but it's never overdone, meaning it's rather thin along these lines. The music is most always a quiet piano, as I've said, and the violence is far less than you might imagine. Midrange detailing is fine, and highs, when present on occasion, sparkle.
Extras:
If you're looking for extras, there aren't any. No major extras, anyhow. I guess WB figured the movie being so long and transferred at such a high bit rate, it took up too much space for anything else. Or they didn't have anything else to include. Who knows. What we get are a few trailers for other Warner products at start-up only; thirty-seven scene selections but no chapter insert; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.
Parting Shots:
"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" comes through in the end, its final thirty minutes at least partially justifying one's time. But that first two hours and ten minutes can sometimes become more than a little tedious.
"Well, Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life,
Three children they were brave,
But that dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard
Has laid poor Jesse in his grave."
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]22671[/release]