Film: The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford.
Date: 10/5/07
Place: Burbank AMC 16




The entire title could not fit on my ticket stub so I went to see "AssAss of" on a pleasant double date night. I was warned the film is LONG and I was warned the film is SLOW but ended up at a 10:40pm screening. Needless to say I nodded off more than a couple times. But that is not the end of my review. This is one interesting film. The acting all around is superb, especially Casey Affleck (Ford). And Mr. Pitt proves again why he is our shiniest Hollywood star. He's deeply sunken in to the tragic anti-hero Jesse James and radiates a dark charisma in each pale smile. Sam Rockwell, aka the most underrated character actor, fits into the cast nicely. He verges on buffoony but redeems the role-reversal of the central characters at the end. It could not be played more poetically.

The Burbank mall multi-plex is a theater to embrace all digital projection (vs. 35mm film). I haven't found myself affected by this yet, until now. Like an old record put up next to a remastered CD, the picture was crisp but left me cold. Cinematographer's magazine this month detailed the film's DP Roger Deakins' (of Jarhead, A Beautiful Mind, The Big Lebowski) bleach-bypass method and assured me this was indeed shot on film before undergoing the digital intermediate process. When I compare Deakins' gorgeous compositions to the iconic shots of Westerns past I miss the grainy warmth from a Peckinpah or Ford epic. But this is not your average Western. In fact, the flick doesn't feel like a Western at all. The parts are there - guns, bandits, and horses - but the revenge of Robert Ford has little to do with the genre. I admit I missed the bravado. Maybe I'm too fresh from 3:10 To Yuma. That film will go down as one of my favorite westerns of the past few years while Jesse James... will most likely fade to obscurity once post-Oscar season washes the celebrity away. The film weaves a voice-over narration into the story with moody montages shot behind beveled glass. A narrative purist, I usually detest the voice-over but the glass effect mesmerizes and the narration unfolds like a novel on screen. The poetry is so strong you think you see words gliding up over the homestead landscapes. But to what greater purpose? The source material is so iconic there doesn't seem to need to be another re-telling of the coward Robert Ford and how he shot Jesse James down. In fact, the film depicts Ford's audience growing tired of his weary tale. It's a beautifully executed moody, weary tale but I can relate to Ford's audience. I was left sleepy and wrapped up in the story of a man's great depression. Not depressed myself, just cold.

Labels: film journal