The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

	Directed by: Andrew Dominik	COUNTRY USA GENRE Western NORWEGIAN TITLE Mordet på Jesse James av den feige Robert Ford RUNNING TIME 160 minutes
	Produced by: Jules Daly Dede Gardner Brad Pitt Ridley Scott David Valdes
	Written by: Andrew Dominik

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Jesse James	Brad Pitt	½
Robert Ford	Casey Affleck	½
Charley Ford	Sam Rockwell
Frank James	Sam Shephard
Zee James	Mary-Louise Parker
Dick Liddil	Paul Schneider	½
Wood Hite	Jeremy Renner
Ed Miller	Garret Dillahunt
Dorothy Evans	Zooey Deschanel
Capt. Henry Craig	Michael Parks
James H. Timberlake	Ted Levine
Wilbur Ford	Pat Healy

Review

The undoubtedly interesting relationship between Jesse James and Bob Ford, with the fascinating ambiguity and naivety that, by all accounts, defined the latter, is the main course in this overlong, somewhat conceited film by Andrew Dominik. The story should have been told in half the time, and preferably without the following three aspects: 1) the documentary-emulating voice-over, 2) the suspense-deflating narrative structure, and 3) Brad Pitt as Jesse James. In order to convey the complexity of the James/Ford gang’s final days, Dominik seems determined to include every parenthesis and sub-clause. And he ostensibly justifies it with his deglamorised portrait of the West. Unfortunately, he seems to confuse a deglamorisation of the Jesse James saga with a deconstruction. It might well be truthful, but it's also ploddingly pragmatic. As a result, we’re not given any juice in exchange for the fun we’re deprived of. Not even a tint of Jesse James’ wild side – or any other side of him, for that matter. In Dominik’s version, James is reduced to a Brad Pitt puppet in cowboy boots, leaving Casey Affleck’s magnificent portrait of Robert Ford the film’s most (almost only) interesting aspect.