Jordan’s Review: 8 stars
Open Range. 3:10 to Yuma. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. All movies that came to mind when I read the title “The Assassination of Jesse James.” This was going to be a western, and I was looking forward to it.
And yet this movie was almost completely unlike those others. It had all of the western conventions: the shootings, the robberies, the panoramic views of sunsets and barren landscapes.
But this movie was… it’s hard to say it, it’s a girly word, but it was beautiful.
That’s the best way to describe it. There wasn’t a single scene in the entire movie that wasn’t gorgeous to look at. The music was lush and tense and haunting, foreshadowing the inevitable death that gives the movie its title. The best part, however, was the acting. Brad Pitt brought his best face to the role of Jesse James (this isn’t the brooding brute from Troy or the blubbering husband in Babel), and he was fun to watch in every scene, but I was blown away by the performance of Casey Affleck as Robert Ford. His hoarse voice, his shifty eyes… he was the perfect character.
It’s really hard to write this review. There is really no way to understand the film without seeing it. It was long in parts, and I was confused in parts (some of the bad guys look pretty similar), but once the plot came together and the stage was set, I was hooked. Please, sit through the movie. By the time it’s over you’ll see what I mean.
Eli’s Review: 6.5 stars
I would have to agree with Jordan on this one. I was expecting a Clint Eastwood, shoot-until-the-gun-melts, thriller. But instead I got a history lesson. Which is fine with me, I love history, in fact it’s my major. So this whole movie was quite fascinating. However, the average western-film aficionado is middle aged men with a bag of Cheetos®, and he is going to fall asleep in the middle of this one. Brad Pitt did an excellent job portraying one of America’s most lauded villains, but the acting job, and the movie, follows the path he took in “Babel” instead of “Ocean’s 11”, more art than grit. If you want to learn about Jesse James, than this film is excellent, great music, great acting, dramatic and I highly recommend “the Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”. If you are like the average middle-aged man, sitting on your couch, enjoying a brew, scratching your bulging belly through your wife-beater, and giddy about the latest issue of “Bass Pro Weekly”, than you won’t like that “Jesse James whatever movie”. If I was posting this on the stalls of the history department on the fifth floor of the GC I would give this 9 stars. But this is Flint. Flint. So I give it 6.5. Still, one of my favorite westerns, and I recommend it to anyone with sophisticated taste, and yes, that’s a challenge.
p.s. Did I mention the soundtrack is top 5 of all time in my book?
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
2007, Rated R
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443680/
2 Comments
September 26, 2008 at 11:43 pm
I thought the movie was fantastic. I’m quite put off by the “Western” genre, so for me the best thing was that I could watch the entire movie without even really realising that it was a Western. It’s more a psychological drama for me, character development, that sort of thing. I would have given it 4/5, and yes, the soundtrack was brilliant (did you like the Nick Cave cameo at the end? :p)
November 18, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I am pretty sure I liked it more than either of you guys, although I don’t own it or plan on doing so anytime soon. I do think it was a bit long, too.
I thought Affleck was fantastic in this and I have a higher level of expectations from him after this performance. He was subtle enough and avoided adding too many tics to the character, which must have been very seductive to do for any actor in this kind of movie.
Let me ask you this, why do you think James was damn near offering himself up on a plate to be killed though? At the moment of his demise, its obvious that he knows whats about to happen — I recall him even seeing the reflection of the assassins — yet calmly seems to not only accept his fate, but welcome it. To my recollection of the movie, it didnt seem he was that weary of life to offer up his sacrifice.
What do you guys think?