movies: the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford... a movie just about as long as it's title!

We ended up going to see this at the Nova Palace in the city, which kind of made for a different experience... different crowd, different vibe, different chairs (slightly less comfortable I have to say, so I was a little fidgety in spots).

I kinda feel about this movie the way that I felt about Apocalypse Now after I saw that (which I know sounds weird, but bare with me)... I don't want to say that I "enjoyed" it... because I don't think either movie is one that you "enjoy", but it was well done.

If I had to sum the movie up in one word, it would have to be laconic. For all that it's a LOOOOOOONG movie (160 minutes) it doesn't make you aware of the time factor... possibly because everything just takes a really long time to happen, so you end up in this whole alternate timestream where everything has just slowed right down.

And somehow that just works for the universe of the movie...

Like James, I really had no idea about the whole history and background of Jesse James, only enough to put him in the same sentence with Billy the Kid and Butch and Sundance... "Wild West" outlaw types. And although I don't know how much of this story is actually true (other than, you know, the fact that Ford shot James and some of the provable facts towards the end), it did give me a wider appreciation of the story as a whole.

Brad Pitt plays what can only be described as "a little bit psycho"... as the movie progresses, you kind of start to flinch away from him a little... not because he's playing it big and out there, but because it's that kind of really tightly reined in psycho, where a change in facial expression or leaning forward in his chair or a look would be enough that you know your days are numbered.

And Casey Affleck just plays weird and socially awkward like nobody's business... it's interestingly actually, you go through a whole range of emotions with his character. He's a nuisance, he's weird, he's sympathetic, he's somewhat tragic... and a bunch of other stuff besides.

Like with a lot of stories of a similar type (close bonds between men, a predominantly male cast doing manly things) there were some hints at homoerotic undertones a couple of times (the two bathtubs scenes come springing to mind). Which is neither here nor there and probably says more about me than it does about the film (although maybe not... I dunno).

And speaking of homoerotic undertones, and the second of the bathtub scenes, I have to say I ended up with a big fat crush on Paul Schneider, I'm not sure why exactly, there was just something about him.

One thing I didn't notice, but that Ma pointed out to me afterwards, this is a movie that is pretty much completely devoid of music. In fact, during the list of songs at the end, only two things are listed... but whether that means that there were only two pieces that they needed to license and the rest was score I dunno. But the movie is incredibly quiet for the most part (that laconic thing again)... so much so that Ma and I could hear each other chewing M&M's. Maybe that's why certain things felt a little unexpected, and certain gunshots just seemed incredibly loud... because there wasn't any music to either tell you what you should be feeling or expecting to feel, or to cover up some of the noisier sounds.

However the brief cameo by Nick Cave performing one of the only pieces of music I do remember was something I probably could have lived without... if only because it really pulled me out of the moment in a way that even the appearances of a bunch of actors I recognised (Sam Rockwell, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeremy Renner, Ted Levine) didn't.

Something I did notice, and that I'm pretty sure was intentional (but I guess you'd have to ask the director to be sure) was the repeating motif of glass and lenses and distortion. There were quite a lot of shots at the beginning of the movie (and some later on too) that were filmed with some weird kind of lens, making the edges of the image a little distorted and misshapen... then there were a bunch of shots through period window glass, which is all buckled and distorted too, giving a kind of fragmented view of whoever is on the other side. There also seemed to be a thing about other kinds of glass too, but that could have been me reading a little too much into the theme I was going with... especially given the way that Jesse actually dies.

Without giving too much away, I couldn't help thinking that what Ford does after the assassination, re-enacting it over and over and over again (800 times at least according to the movie) had to be some form of torture or some lower level of hell.

It's an effective film overall... and one that I would probably recommend as something to see, but I have to say that it's actually a little difficult to score... I think possibly it's that whole "enjoyment" thing again...

yani's rating: 3 gunslingers out of 5