THE ASSASINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD

Release Date: 30th November
Running Time: 160 mins

STARRING
Brad Pitt ...  Jesse James
Casey Affleck ...  Robert Ford
Sam Rockwell ...  Charley Ford
Mary-Louise Parker ...  Zee James

DIRECTOR: Andrew Dominik

Don't be fooled by the title, the setting or even the continual presence of gun-toting outlaws on screen - 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford' is no guns-blazing western. It's something much better! As long as the title suggests, this engaging period piece is a slow-paced, well-rounded character study of two very different (or perhaps not so different) men - one the most intriguing and notrious outlaw in American history, the other the man who killed.

Depending on the angle, Jesse James (Brad Pitt) is an icon of the free American West or a Confederate bandit who couldn't let the Civil War go. Pitt's excellent performance shows that a complex character could be both at once, and more besides. Aided by a fantastic script, Pitt cleverly avoids settling on a concrete definition of who Jesse James really was. He's at once a troubled and terrifying, sleepless and energetic, paranoid and cocky, a loving father and husband, and a charismatic murderer.

James' assassin, Robert Ford (played superbly by Casey Affleck) is almost more human. Barely out of childhood, he is occupied by a youthful fascination and hero-worship of the legendary James. Over the course of the film, however, he morphs from a star-struck young fan into a jealous young man who not only wants to be like his idol, he wants to be him. And, he reasons, that the only way to attain this is to kill his hero.

It is the later parts of the film that we realise this is truly the story is of Ford's infamous deed, not the slain legend. It queries why Ford did it, how he managed to gain the trust of such a paranoid man, and how he deals with his own fame in the aftermath of killing to most famous man in America. Affleck's performance is so well balanced that at various parts of the film we are annoyed, angry and disgusted by Ford, yet also embarrassed for him, or sympathetic to his adult reflections of actions carried out when he was little more than a child.

The supporting cast are all outstanding, especially Sam Rockwell giving a troubled, conflicted turn as Robert's older brother, Charlie. He is constantly torn by his love of his brother, and his loyalty to James and all that he represents.

The film is set against the natural beauty of the American MidWest and the late 19th century society in which outlaws were no longer able to function. In a way, James seems to have accepted his fate long before our story even begins, and wait with increasing paranoia to discover who his eventual assassin will be. In doing so, her alienating more and more of his gang, creating new suspects for the impending crime.
The tale of Robert Ford's infamous crime takes two and a half hours to tell. Some may find this overlong, but the intense drama, cut with sudden violence, does has a satisfying resolution when it does finally manage to end. You leave the cinema feeling that, not only did you learn a little bit of American history today, but perhaps something about the human condition too.