Review

Review Date: 14-October-07
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

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

"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" is a ridiculously lengthy title for a movie, yet it suits this picture just fine. Writer/director Andrew Dominik, in only his second film, transports the viewer back to a bleak but beautiful age when such quaint literalness would fit right in. The snow-packed earth, the ominous skies, the cant and customs of a not-quite-tamed frontier: the journey to his destination is like the casting of a spell, whose ability to haunt will surely be proven by time.

The assassination took place in 1882, when the notorious James gang was falling apart and its charismatic leader was beginning to sense death at his doorstep (even though he relocated his doorstep frequently to avoid arrest). With his original cronies dead or incarcerated and older brother Frank retired, Jesse had assembled a second string to continue the family business. Not only were these rookies and coarse, unsettled men, they had long heard of the substantial reward awaiting the guy who brought the famous outlaw to justice. Among them was Bob Ford, who had idolized Jesse throughout his 19 years and bore all the symptoms of what we would now call a celebrity stalker.

The actors' depictions of these characters are as spellbinding as Dominik's vision. Casey Affleck embraces Ford's basic repulsiveness by rendering his weakness as a fact of human nature. Granted access to his hero as if by a gift from god (in reality, the recruiting of brother Charlie Ford, played by Sam Rockwell), he views Jesse as the epitome of glorious manhood and the means of attaining it himself. That he switches from emulation to assassination might be excused by the nature of his victim. This Jesse James, indelibly etched by Brad Pitt, resembles certain descriptions of Satan. Mesmerizing and terrifying, he appears to have eyes in the back of his head, a knack for reading minds, and the ability to materialize without sound. Though susceptible to great torment, he is a slave to his own power. Both men elicit complex emotions, not the least of which is loathing. You witness them and think, Yes, this is how it must have been.

Another fact of human nature: the weak never truly conquer the strong. The appearance of a threat in someone so puny as Bob Ford only confirms for Jesse that his time has come to an end. In giving himself up for the slaughter, he dooms his killer to a shortened life and a reward of hatred instead of admiration. The final minutes of the film conclude that Ford immortalized his cowardice by trying to establish his courage. (Poor guy, they even made a motion picture about it 125 years after the fact!) The assassination thus related is a fine example of the mysterious dynamics that make some men legends and others merely pawns.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.