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Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The
Warner Bros. Pictures

Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The reviews


7.4

based on 32 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 67 votes
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Rate this movie

FILM:

Chopper

MPAA RATING: R for some strong violence and brief sexual references

Starring Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Zooey Deschanel, Mary-Louise Parker, Sam Rockwell, and Paul Schneider

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford delves into the private life and public exploits of America's most notorious outlaw. As the charismatic and unpredictable Jesse James plans his next great robbery, he wages war on his enemies, who are trying to collect the reward money--and the glory--riding on his capture. But the greatest threat to his life may ultimately come from those he trusts the most. (Universal Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Drama \| Western
WRITTEN BY:	Ron Hansen (novel) Andrew Dominik
DIRECTED BY:	Andrew Dominik
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 5, 2008 Theatrical: September 21, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	160 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The nervy style of this newfangled Western, with its eerie, insinuating score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, is so effective that long after Pitt and Affleck have left the screen, emotional disturbance lingers like gun smoke.

100

USA Today Claudia Puig

Though there is plenty of gunplay, this is a wondrously contemplative and poetic saga that offers a fresh and bewitching take on a timeworn genre.

100

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

A peculiar and destabilizing tone that's far from the standard Hollywood oater, but entirely fitting for two larger-than-life characters fulfilling their roles in history.

100

Empire Ian Nathan

An extraordinary and visionary study of a legendary murderer’s famous fate, within touching distance of Oscars.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Pitt won the Best Actor award at Venice for his Jesse...Yet it's Affleck who impresses most as the wary, skittish Bob.

Variety Todd McCarthy

One of the best Westerns of the 1970s, which represents the highest possible praise. It's a magnificent throwback to a time when filmmakers found all sorts of ways to refashion Hollywood's oldest and most durable genre.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Artfully exciting and compulsively watchable even at a butt-numbing 152 minutes, the film makes good on the promise New Zealand writer-director Andrew Dominik showed with "Chopper" in 2000.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Proceeds at a very stately pace, hoping the otherworldly mood of its detailed recreation of the old West might seep into the viewer's bones. This viewer did, as it happens, fall under the film's spell.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Here is another Western in the classical tradition.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

It is a film, often breathtaking without settling for being pretty, filled with nervous silence.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Mournful and moody, crepuscular and poetic, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford turns one of cinema's most rehearsed tales into a dreamy inquiry into the nature of sadism, hero-worship and betrayal.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

I wish this movie wasn't so purposefully elegiac and attenuated – at times it's like a middling Terrence Malick fantasia – but it's well worth sitting through.

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

No one in the movie is entirely right in the head, least of all James, whose rapidly disintegrating sanity provides Pitt with his juiciest role since "Snatch," one he chomps into with all the relish of a guy who’s been playing suave leading men for too long.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Does something no other Jesse James movie has done: It tells the truth.

Film Threat Matthew Sorrento

In a case where the most dangerous are kept dangerously close, here we have a rarity: a suspenseful, yet dramatic Western.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The language of its narrative, like that of its characters, may be elevated -- a literary Western version of Damon Runyon -- but the words are intriguing, challenging and, occasionally, very funny.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

I can tell you in nine words whether you'll want to see The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: Writer-director Andrew Dominik wants to be Terrence Malick.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The movie dreamily conjures up the outlaw's last months, and it's gorgeous, but long, cumbersome, and slightly shallow.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It’s far less engaging than the recent "3:10 to Yuma" remake and concentrates more on the details than the broad picture.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

A long, ambitious, fitfully rewarding movie, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is less about the gun-toting outlaws of the 1880s than the filmmaking outlaws of the 1970s.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Although not as radically defamiliarizing as Jim Jarmusch's avant-western "Dead Man," Jesse James has the feel of an attic ransacked for abandoned knickknacks.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Andrew Dominik's long and bizarre movie about the American outlaw appears to stick close enough to the facts so that historians won't be able to complain. But it languishes toward torpor.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Represents a breakthrough in the moviegoing experience. It may be the first time we've been asked to watch a book on tape.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

It is no mean feat to make a boring film about Jesse James, but Andrew Dominik has pulled it off in style.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Ponderous, repetitive and lacking a single rousing action sequence.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

This revisionist western by writer-director Andrew Dominik makes a wan attempt to present the Jesse James legend as the dawn of celebrity culture in America.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Mr. Pitt is himself a supernova luminary, of course, and part of the attraction of this film is how his celebrity feeds into that of his character, adding shadings to what is, finally, an overconceptualized if under-intellectualized endeavor.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

This fascinating relationship gets smothered in pointlessly long takes, repetitive scenes, grim Western landscapes and mumbled, heavily accented dialogue.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A film whose reach exceeds its grasp. Hugely ambitious and not without moments of success, this indulgent 2 hour and 40 minute epic ends up as unwieldy as its elongated title. It's a movie in love with itself, and few things are more fatal than that.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Maybe the life was edited out of it in the two years between shooting and release, or maybe Dominik was simply overwhelmed by the outsized myths of the West, but the film only comes to life after James' death, when Ford quite literally takes center stage.

Slate Dana Stevens

The mere phrase "Brad Pitt as Jesse James" makes for a kind of mini-reflection on the evolution of celebrity culture. It's a shame that The Assassination of Jesse James never goes much deeper than that tag line.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A gorgeous snooze, somewhere between imitation Terrence Malick and a feature version of star Brad Pitt's notorious Vanity Fair layout with Angelina Jolie and their faux kids.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 67 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jay M. gave it a9:
This western meditation on the perils of celebrity is certainly one of the best films of 2007. There is no denying the integrity and subseqent execution of Mr. Dominik's most singular vision; with this film he has elevated himself to the fore of American filmmakers. And I might add that Casey Affleck gives perhaps the performance of the year.

[Anonymous] gave it an8:
Not to dismiss John Wayne; but this is the best movie ever in the Western genre.

Galen S. gave it a10:
I was a little hesitant to purchase this D.V.D., considering the fact that I don't like western films at all. However, knowing that the movie was based on historical facts encouraged me to go ahead and take a chance. All I can say is WOW! I've never seen a movie with more intense visuals, a better sound track, or more intense acting performances! This isn't a movie, it's a masterpiece of art on the Widescreen! The adaptation of the story is phenomenal, the panorama of the visuals is amazing, and the soundtrack is haunting. Casey Affleck gives the performance of a lifetime as the nit-witted, apparently harmless, yet ruthless Robert Ford, and Brad Pitt plays the part of Jesse James to perfection. In fact, all the acting performances in this movie are top notch, not to mention the fact that the cinematography is out of this world, the sound track is hauntingly surrealistic, and the story itself compelling. While watching this movie, I felt as if I myself had been transported back in time to 1881, and was watching the whole drama unfold before my very eyes! Incredible!!!!!

Steven H. gave it a9:
Slow, yes. But brilliant, too.

Smith A. gave it a10:
I am a connoisseur of cinematic detail. Especially in historical movies that I have a fair knowledge of the times they depict. And I am often absolutely, verbally, anal. I drive my wife nuts on this but to me even a background set filled with accurate prosaic items is cause for a private gasp of wonder for me. Hey--someone connected with the movie I am watching actually CARED about attempting to render history halfway realistically! Someone once said that the past is another country: "They do things differently there." Kudos to the screenwriter and the others who cooperated on this masterpiece. The dialog and diction (supported by the splendid cinematography!) transported me back to the late 1800s. The film seemed to me to be about as linguistically/historically perfect as it could possibly be. If the speech was not exactly "factually correct," it nevertheless rang profoundly true. These old flesh and blood American characters probably and actually talked like this--a mixture of transplanted British courtliness and low-down--often obscene--countrified slang. The clothing was right there along with everything else. I don't believe I will ever look at Kirk Douglas or John Wayne with their smart and silk perfectly-knotted neckerchiefs below their ostentatious Stepsons the same way again. A word or two on the film's cinematography.... This is the first time I have seen color photography that evoked both the beauty of western landscape, the stark, papered-over gritty poverty of frontier life and the "blurred-at-the-edges" sepia daguerreotyped glass plate images of a century ago. This movie was an outstanding experience for my wife and I.

k e gave it a10:
The long title gives away the plot, but damn is the movie good. The cinematography and atmosphere is incredible and the acting by Affleck is great, too. the music is awesome and the final 30 - 45 minutes are awesome. The film is better than 3:10, and if you liked this film >>> go watch the proposition.

Matt R gave it a10:
an instant classic western anyone who rates this movie poorly has no taste! Seriously I am surprised more people aren't talking about this movie. I guess real movies (not crap edited down to 100 minutes) aren't suited for today's audience. Watch it!

Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Warner Bros. Pictures

Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The
Warner Bros. Pictures