The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

[Temis the Vorta]

Anyone see it? Whadja think?

Better than I expected - and watching it on DVD solves the it's-too-long problem that I heard so many complaints about. Just split it into two viewings. I see how the beginning was maybe too leisurely, but all that stuff was necessary to set up the assassination so I don't see what could have been cut.

Loved Casey Affleck (but why did he get a Supporting Actor nomination? wasn't he the lead?) and Brad Pitt certainly did a convincing job as a very disturbed yet charming individual.

The idea that someone could commit murder (I don't think any court would accept that scenario as self-defense) and then go on stage and re-enact the scene hundreds of times is pretty amazing. Can you see that happening today? Gotta love the 19th C.

So why did Jesse take off his guns, knowing what the outcome would be? Did he come to the conclusion that if he's such a nutcase he can't even hang onto the loyalty of two dimwitted underlings, one of whom is practically an obsessed stalker, he might as well just pack it in?

 

[Magisterfrodo]

I also found it very good. "Enjoyed" may be too strong a word. Do you enojoy reading a very sad book? Not really, but their is satisfaction there if the story is told well. That how I see this movie, which I found very interesting. I went ahead and watched it a second time just so I could appreciate all the nuances. I wish I'd had the chance to see it on the big screen (didn't show in Waco). The visual artistry was amazing.

Hard to really say who the lead was. Both Jesse and Bob have long stretches of the movie where they are not seen.

I think the point of Jesse allowing himself to be killed was that he simply hated himself. That, combined with the knowledge that he had just read that two of his men had been caught and were talking, was enough for him to decide life wasn't worth living anymore.

 

[stj]

There was very early on a remarkably vulgar scene between the henchmen about sex with Native American women that managed to use most of the colorful synonyms for vagina. This was rather offputting. The movie was so slow that the only thing distracting me from the memory was the impossibly quick braking of the train. (Maybe a lifetime of memories of trains on a double trunk made too much of an impression!) Couldn't finish it at all.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

James Carville's cameo certainly was strange.

 

[JNG]

Ron Hansen is a superb writer and teacher, and I count my opportunities to work with him
as among the most memorable of my career to date. But when asked what his involvement with movies made of his books is, he answered, "I sign the checks." I became concerned if it was worth seeing this adapatation at all. Hearing mixed things from y'all.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Well, it's intelligent, artistic, lovely and very well acted, if that helps. It's also a lot slower paced than you might expect from a "Western," and it might be considered odd that it picks up the Jesse James story at the end of his careeer after all the "exciting" stuff has happened. Maybe that's what the book did, too.

 

[Evil Twin]

Yawn. I was totally bored by it. Let me put it this way: when the actual assassination happened I was ASLEEP.

 

[Trekker4747]

I thought it was a very good, very well made, movie. Worth seeing once, which I did, but don't think it is worth it to me to buy it/see it again.

I did enjoy Pitt's and Affleck's performances

Good, solid, movie that's very well directed and given a nice visual style.

 

[Dude]

One of the better movies I've seen. I enjoyed the narrative style and believed that each of the actors did a tremendous job of making their characters believable. Each of the major characters were truly bad people, so their work was especially good.

I'm glad I saw it in the theater.

 

[Captain Dago]

I'm glad I saw it in the theater.

I wish I'd seen it at the cinema. It's a lovely film and deserves the big screen. Still, a fascinating look at the nature of fame, well-written, acted and directed. It gets the big from me.