The film--only the second to be made by New Zealand?born writer-director Andrew Dominik--reminds us that Dominik's debut film, Chopper (2000), was the cunningly off-kilter portrait of another real-life criminal psychopath who became a kind of rock star to his society. The Jesse James of this telling is no Robin Hood robbing the rich to give to the poor, and that train robbery we witness is punctuated by acts of gratuitous brutality, not gallantry. Nineteen-year-old Bob Ford (Casey Affleck) seeks to join the James gang out of hero worship stoked by the dime novels he secretes under his bed, but his glam hero (Brad Pitt) is a monster who takes private glee in infecting his accomplices with his own paranoia, then murdering them for it. In the careful orchestration of James's final moments, there's even a hint that he takes satisfaction in his own demise.

Affleck and Pitt (who co-produced with Ridley Scott, among others) are mesmerizing in the title roles, but the movie is enriched by an exceptional supporting cast: Sam Shepard as Jesse's older, more stable brother Frank; Sam Rockwell as Bob Ford's own brother Charlie, whose post-assassination descent into madness is astonishing to behold; Paul Schneider, Garret Dillahunt, and Jeremy Renner as three variously doomed gang members; and Mary-Louise Parker, who as Jesse's wife Zee has few lines yet manages with looks and body language to invoke a wellnigh-novelistic backstory for herself. There are also electrifying cameos by James Carville, doing solid actorly work as the governor of Missouri; Ted Levine, as a lawman of antic spirit; and Nick Cave, composer of the film's score (with Warren Ellis) and screenwriter of the Aussie "Western" The Proposition, suddenly towering over a late scene to perform the folk song that set the terms for the book and movie's title.

Still, the real costar is Roger Deakins, probably the finest cinematographer at work today. The landscapes of the movie (mostly in Alberta and Manitoba) will linger in the memory as long as the distinctive faces, and we seem to feel the sting of its snows on our cheeks. Interior scenes are equally persuasive. Few Westerns have conveyed so tangibly the bleakness and austerity of the spaces people of the frontier called home, and sought in vain to warm with human spirit. --Richard T. Jameson

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

• Gone Baby Gone
• In the Valley of Elah
• The Brave One (Full-Screen Edition)
• We Own the Night
• Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
• Michael Clayton (Widescreen Edition)
• Rendition
• Eastern Promises (Widescreen Edition)
• There Will Be Blood
• Elizabeth - The Golden Age (Widescreen Edition)

If it is guilty of moving a little slowly in some parts, and (the inevitable critical refrain when shooting a historical picture) taking liberties with supposed fact, then it more than makes up for that in so many other ways. I can only say I hope this team of actors, directors, producers and writers gets together again soon to make another film. If anyone thinks to dismiss either Brad Pitt or Casey Affleck as lightweight actors, watch this and learn otherwise. This is history, filmmaking, biography, storytelling, and the presentation of the legends of Americana as they all ought to be, and shame on the Academy for slighting this movie at the (increasingly out of touch) Oscars. Congratulations to everyone involved in this great classic. I'd put this on the ten best list of the 2000's thus far. I can't say enough about this near-perfect motion picture. As along with its pitch-perfect narration and soundtrack it alternates from its slightly fuzzy dreamy quality to its pull-no-punches brand of stark realism, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford weaves a hypnotic tale as has little else I've ever seen.

The screenwriting is excellent, and Brad Pitt gives what may be his best performance ever as Jesse James in the sunset of his notorious career. The film is as much about morality as about a peculiar period in American history, a time of expansion westward which was conducted at great cost to many.

I rather enjoyed the bleak yet realistically portrayed conditions of frontier town life and the typical period style shameless sideshow staged events that this movie profiles. Pitt's performance is wonderful; his silences, body language and facial expressions are as well acted as his dialogue.

While the title gives away the culminating event, by the end of the film, you find yourself sympathizing with the fabled outlaw, despite his horrific deeds. Quite the opposite: it is one of those slow as molasses unfolding story movies.

However, be forewarned: if you like action movies, this isn't one of those. This film caught me by surprise.

Mr.

The film's BEAUTIFUL cinematography and musical score also help to gel moments of extreme, gut-wrenching emotion.like the build-up to the scene where Jesse gets killed, for example, which is so poetically rendered. Bob & Charley (Affleck and Rockwell) are so limp with fear, love, shame, remorse, etc., it's almost beautifully unbearable to even watch. If you love the genre and you want to be transported back in time, then by all senses, the film actually seems to end too soon. No one is a winner in this movie. ;-)

Ultimately, he realized that. He would be immortalized forever in the less than flattering die which he alone had cast himself in. Sometimes just adequately. His character was not an easy one to portray. A Greek Tragedy that slices open and lays bare the reality of notoriety, gained at the cost of crime.the notion of romanticizing the Old West has never been so thoroughly destroyed, as in this film. For anyone who knows their history and what's about to happen, you feel as if you'd give anything in the world to somehow turn back the clock at this critical juncture in our nation's past. The whole film is a Western-noir of epic proportions. And for my money, THAT is what makes it so great.

Yet, by the end of the film, you can so thoroughly feel his own pain over what he's done, that you don't know whether to embrace him, or loathe him. It's a long film, as some people have complained about. You'd think that we Americans would know best how to make movies about our own history, as well as within a genre that all but defined early American cinema, but Dominik (Director of the Australian classic "Chopper") aced this one. But for American history buffs.and for pure film buffs who enjoy movies that are more art than prepackaged, predictable Hollywood westerns.this film will adorn your library, much the way an original Russel painting might hang with prominence over your fireplace. The characters are so genuine, so real, and the attention to historic detail in every facet of the movie is so meticulous, that you get a sense of not being just a mere spectator, but of actually being a silent, awe-struck participant, standing just barely and always at arms length, wishing you could reach in and halt the tragedy that is unfolding in front of you.

Casey Affleck is AMAZING as a squirrelly, mincing villain.he's really the ultimate stalker. At the moment Jesse says; "Don't that picture look dusty.", the score comes in, and this point in time is set in a mournful, heart-stopping way. That disconnect that you often feel with the times when watching other westerns isn't present in this film. But sometimes, as in the case of this film, they set the bar for a whole new level of enjoyment within the genre. He's captured the flavor and feel of the Reconstruction Era (as best we can understand it today).

Bob Ford made the history books, but not in the dire way he so longed to be remembered. But it was more than just too late to redeem himself. And ironically, (much like a Sergio Leone film) it's being done by a Director who's not even American. Westerns are constantly being reinvented. To somehow right the apparent wrong.

Average video bit rate: 15.70 Mbps. VC-1 BD-25.

Running time: 2:39:40. DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps English / French / Spanish.

Aspect ratio: 2.40:1. #Documentary - The Assassination of Jesse James: Death of an Outlaw (SD - 32 minutes)

Disc size: 23,94 GB. Subtitles: English / French / Spanish.

Version: U.S.A / Region A, B, C. Movie size: 22,41 GB.

There is a sort of homoerotic attachment. In fact, it almost aspires to be a differently-flavored "Brokeback Mountain.". The portrayal of Jesse James as conflicted and Robert Ford as hero-worshipper is surely a fictional amplification, but nonetheless interesting. The cinematography truly deserves all its praise, as it's moving art on the screen. You know Brad Pitt is Jesse James and that Casey Affleck is Robert Ford, but the poor choice of throwing a bunch of other at-first anonymous men into the story early and randomly mars the beginning. Very little horse-riding, shoot-'em-up stuff. It's worth a look because it's such an unusual film.

This hardly qualifies as a "western" though it has the old-time look to it. He's fine to look at and passes as an actor. His skills as an actor are fully flexed in this extraordinary role. Casey Affleck is sheer brilliance as a fey, admiring, sometimes brave, curious fan of Jesse James. (Plus, its nearly three-hour length demonstrates that the movie needed far better editing).

To get it, you must watch it twice. Don't be discouraged by the meandering beginning, which throws you into a cast of at-first-undistinguishable secondary characters. Sam Shepherd and the others in the cast do a good-enough jobbut not stunning. The exteriors of the train robbery alone were oddly beautiful and serene. Because the movie works with underlayments of psychological interaction, you pick up much more the second time.

I would like to say that I "hated" this movie or that it "was great." But neither is true. Don't get too excited about Pitt, though.