The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Name: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Crime, Western
Released: September 21, 2007
Duration: 160 min
Rating: 68
Cast: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepard

2007

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Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 242 Ratings

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8.0	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 242 Ratings

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The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

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Movie Details & Credits

Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: September 21, 2007 | R

Starring: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepard

Summary: 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 theThe 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)… Expand

Director: Andrew Dominik

Genre(s): Biography, Drama, History, Crime, Western

Rating: R

Runtime: 160 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

Michael Phillips

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

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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User Reviews

Johnny

Nov 8, 2008

Absolutely spellbinding. An endlessly interesting character study that's flawlessly written and directed. Casey Affleck delivers in this career-defining role, and both he and Brad Pitt give two of the most complex performances I've ever seen in cinema. I understand that this film Absolutely spellbinding. An endlessly interesting character study that's flawlessly written and directed. Casey Affleck delivers in this career-defining role, and both he and Brad Pitt give two of the most complex performances I've ever seen in cinema. I understand that this film will actually bore many people. It is described as a western but it is an artistic western. It is about the film-making; the story; the characters, and not about the all so cliched shoot-em-ups and explosions you see in old westerns. If you can handle art, and steer away from action for just a little bit, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" will truly move you if you can view this in the correct context. If historical accuracy means anything to you, this is THE film to watch.… Expand

4 of 5 users found this helpful

Ninorota

Jun 18, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. An absolute masterpiece cinematography soundtrack, cast.
This movie went overlooked or it was just over the heads of most viewers now in my top 10.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

SmithA.

Feb 29, 2008

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 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.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful

Chad

Feb 4, 2008

I just want to get one thing out of the way right now, the assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford is a slow movie. It can be very slow, and if you can't handle a 2 hour and 40 minute movie then you should not watch this. However, if you can then you will witness the I just want to get one thing out of the way right now, the assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford is a slow movie. It can be very slow, and if you can't handle a 2 hour and 40 minute movie then you should not watch this. However, if you can then you will witness the best acting performance ever by Casey Affleck as one of the most intriguing and memorable movie characters ever. I can not explain enough how convincing he truly is as robert ford. The rest of the cast is as believable as can be, but casey still outshines everyone and is the sole reason to watch this film. I assure you that long after you're done watching the assassination you will be talking about how good he played that role. The transformations Robert Ford goes through throughout the entire movie is extremely interesting and not before long you become engrossed in his character and how he feels and its all due to casey's performance. I recommend this movie to anyone who appreciates good acting and or enjoys watching all kinds of films, but again if you cant handle the length of the movie then just stay away.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

aryanrule

Feb 3, 2011

U have to be very psychologically prepared for this drama feast of fabolous performance by Casey Affleck and ofcourse Brad Pitt. At first, the movie seems hard to be watched but as time passes (movie last for about 3 hours) u become more curious 'bout things that would eventually happen,U have to be very psychologically prepared for this drama feast of fabolous performance by Casey Affleck and ofcourse Brad Pitt. At first, the movie seems hard to be watched but as time passes (movie last for about 3 hours) u become more curious 'bout things that would eventually happen, though aware what will be in the end. Name of the movie itself is the mini-synopsis, but this one is definitely slow-paced drama NOT written for mass audience. For what is worth its not commercial...… Expand

4 of 4 users found this helpful40

MovieMasterEddy

Apr 4, 2016

Good, Bad or Ugly: A Legend Shrouded in Gunsmoke Remains Hazy.

Before a bullet shattered his skull in 1882, Jesse James cut a bloody swath through parts of the Midwest and the South, leaving a trail of corpses and favorable press notices in his wake. Bad man, poor man, bushwhacker, thief,Good, Bad or Ugly: A Legend Shrouded in Gunsmoke Remains Hazy.

Before a bullet shattered his skull in 1882, Jesse James cut a bloody swath through parts of the Midwest and the South, leaving a trail of corpses and favorable press notices in his wake. Bad man, poor man, bushwhacker, thief, James was as American as apple pie and the Confederate flag he wrapped himself in like an excuse. That bard of the great unwashed, Woody Guthrie, compared him to Robin Hood, and decades later Bruce Springsteen kept the fires burning, singing about a homespun legend as seductive as it is false.

The lachrymose new film “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” adds another gauzy chapter to the overtaxed James myth, if not much rhyme or reason, heart or soul. Topped by Brad Pitt wearing boot-black hair and a faraway stare, this is a portrait of the murderer as a middle-aged man as seen through the curious mirror of celebrity. At a well-seasoned 34, James lives in an ordinary house in an ordinary town, where he sits in his backyard smoking cigars and handling snakes, a devil playing at preacher. His days with Confederacy guerrillas are long gone, as are most of his crimes. Among his closest companions now is his greatest fan, Bob Ford, a gunslinger slyly played by Casey Affleck.

As its title announces, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” is about a murder, the last violent chapter in a cruelly violent life. As such, it’s also about a celebrity stalker, a kind of Mark David Chapman in spurs who nurses an annihilating love for the object of his obsession. It’s an obsession fueled and fanned by the media, including the sympathetic newsmen who saw James as a heroic anti-Reconstructionist, and the fiction writers who memorialized and even exalted the brutal exploits of his gang. Like a schoolgirl with a crush, Bob Ford keeps his treasured Jesse James dime novels in a box under his bed. When he caresses the cover of one book, it’s as if he were tenderly stroking a lover’s cheek.

If there was more to Bob’s love, you won’t find it here, despite a coy bathtub scene that finds James luxuriating in milky water while the younger man hovers uncertainly nearby. “You want to be like me or do you want to be me?” asks James, casting his glance back at the man others would later brand Judas. In this nearly all-male world of camaraderie and gunsmoke, where little women bustle discreetly in the background (including Mary-Louise Parker as James’s wife, Zee), the ways of the flesh, of heaving, stinking, struggling humanity, have little place. For all their exploded bone and ravaged pulp, their trickles and rivulets of blood, the men in this film aren’t as much bodies as beautiful, empty signifiers.

In his last — and first — feature film, “Chopper” (2000), the New Zealand-born director Andrew Dominik seemed on the same wavelength as his raucous, at times queasy, entertaining subject, the ultrabrutal criminal reprobate of the title, played by Eric Bana. Neither overtly sympathetic nor disapproving, the filmmaker presented his villain as a larger-than-life but unequivocally human grotesque. Using color like an Expressionist, he bleached the screen a sizzling white that turned blood red nearly black and splashed on hues of bilious green and urine yellow as if to suggest that Chopper’s fluids had leaked from his body to contaminate his surroundings. The colors sicken and beguile, as does the human riddle at their center.

There’s a different riddle in “The Assassination of Jesse James,” staring into a florid sunset, slashes of red cutting across the sky. Dressed in near-all black, the question mark known as Jesse James stands away from the camera, knee-deep in a golden, grassy field stirred by the wind or perhaps just an off-screen mechanical fan.

It’s a striking, pleasing image, whatever the case, pretty as a picture postcard, a vision of man and nature that brings to mind Thoreau at Walden Pond or more precisely Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven.” James is also facing West, of course, toward the last frontier, home to cowboys and Indians and prospectors of all types, including, soon enough, those who will wield movie cameras, not six-shooters.

The true story of Jesse James, despite all the dime novels and B movies, remains untold, perhaps because in its savagery it really is as American as apple pie and, as such, unspeakably hard to tell.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

ChristopherC.

Feb 10, 2008

I think the worst thing about the movie is that it fools some people into thinking it's intelligent and thoughtful. Watching these people calling this film 'high art' is a bit scary, and a little disheartening. This is intelligence? This is what art has become? I hope to God I think the worst thing about the movie is that it fools some people into thinking it's intelligent and thoughtful. Watching these people calling this film 'high art' is a bit scary, and a little disheartening. This is intelligence? This is what art has become? I hope to God not. Please, give me a reason to hope not.… Expand

0 of 6 users found this helpful

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60	#60 Most Discussed Movie of 2007
25	#25 Most Shared Movie of 2007