HEFE'S REVIEW OF:
THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES
BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD

OPENING THOUGHTS

    I wanted to watch this movie for one reason and one reason only. 100 years after the death of Jesse James, whenever I tell people my name is Jesse they always say: "Jesse, like Jesse James?" Then I proceed to punch them in the genitals. But it does go to show you what being famous really is, it is people knowing exactly who you are over 100 years after you are dead. Also on a side note I feel I must share this. When this movie came in the mail my darling wife read the title and proceeded to ask me what this movie was about. Normally this would not upset me, but when the film's title is a full sentence that describes the entire plot of the film, there is simply no excuse for asking what the movie is about. But as much as she made me laugh when she asked that question I had to immediately file for divorce.

ACTING

    BRAD PITT played me, or you know some lesser known guy who shares my name sake. Anyway he did a pretty good job I guess, to be honest this was not the best I have ever seen him do. Once again as in Oceans Thirteen I felt kind of like he was just walking through his role without trying much. I wanted to see a few ice cold stares, and some scenes where he clenched his jaw too tight. Or at least see him role a cigarette one handed. Still, I think he did better than a lot of people would have done had they been given the role.
    CASEY AFFLECK is an awkward guy, I have a long-standing well-known belief that Casey Affleck is really just Ben Affleck wearing a little boy mask. But in this case his weird awkward delivery style was extremely appropriate and after years of blowing people in Ben's entourage he finally got a shot at the big leagues. While I feel he did a great job with this role, I can't see him becoming a superstar, he just isn't versatile enough to be able to play people who aren't awkward, and as we all know most of the awkward character roles get snatched up by Steve Buscemi, who is in my opinion a much better actor.
    SAM ROCKWELL was great in this movie, he too is an awkward little shit with weird teeth. I have always enjoyed Rockwell, but when I heard he was in this movie I admittedly didn't think he would be good in a western. But to my surprise he was fantastic, he was one of my favorite characters in the entire film, and the teeth were very time appropriate.
    PAUL SCHNEIDER played a guy whose name is Dick Liddel. If I was immature I might think that was funny and proceed to giggle like a little girl. It's a good thing I am not immature though, because if I was I might also point out that the word assassination has the word "ass" in it twice in a row and then proceed to laugh until tears streamed down my face and into my pudding cup. But luckily I am above that sort of thing.

DIRECTION AND SCRIPT

    ANDREW DOMINIK somehow got a shit-load of famous people to appear in this movie. Don't ask me how he accomplished this, because if I knew then I would have done it myself. So the question is does he deserve to get all of these A-listers in his film, or was he just a lucky son of a bitch? Well, I liked the dialogue in the movie, but I felt there was too much voice-over, when you have that much voice-over it means that you couldn't figure out how to adapt that part of the story so you just hire some dude with a deep voice to read the book to the audience. So in the writing department I am split, good dialogue, but too much voice over. As for the direction I am also split, I love the way this movie was shot. The look was really cool, it was like looking at a bunch of old photographs that suddenly came to life. The problem I had with the direction was the pacing. It was painfully slow in some areas, especially the beginning. About half way through the pacing started to pick up, but that was only after an hour of slowness. So he is half good and half shitty, kind of like an ice cream sandwich made out of ice cream and dog shit.

THE VERDICT

    This was an interesting movie, it felt historically accurate, but I have nothing to back that up with. I enjoyed several of the characters in the film, and the acting was for the most part good. But be prepared the pacing may make you doesy in the first half of the film. One thing I will say is that the look of this film was really cool, and I doubt you will ever see a better movie that stars Casey Affleck.
 
 

RATING: B -

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