Directed by:
Andrew DominikScreenplay:
Andrew DominikCinematography:
Roger DeakinsCast:
Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepard, Mary-Louise Parker, Paul Schneider, Jeremy Renner, Garret Dillahunt, Zooey Deschanel, Michael Parks, Ted Levine (more)VOD (2)
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Everyone in 1880s America knows Jesse James. He’s the nation’s most notorious criminal, hunted by the law in 10 states. He’s also the land’s greatest hero, lauded as a Robin Hood by the public. Robert Ford? No one knows him. Not yet. But the ambitious 19-year-old aims to change that. He’ll befriend Jesse, ride with his gang. And if that doesn’t bring Ford fame, he’ll find a deadlier way. Friendship becomes rivalry and the quest for fame becomes obsession in this virile epic produced in part by Ridley Scott and featuring gripping portrayals by Brad Pitt (winner of the Venice Film Festival Best Actor Award) as Jesse and Casey Affleck as the youth drawn closer to his goal…and farther from his own humanity. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (8)
In the entire 160 minutes of this film there is not a single shot that is redundant or superfluous, and this can't be said very often. I agree with the review by Lima, who thoroughly analyzed the actors, characters, and their actions. The only difference is that for my voracious mainstream taste, I would need more action. But this piece will satisfy old hands and film intellectuals (not the cynics) one hundred percent.
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If I had to use only one word to describe this film, I’d probably choose "captivating". A narrative flowing so seamlessly that I wouldn't have cut a single frame, and this is a 150-minute voyage completely outside Hollywood mainstream, where little editing, expressions that replace dozens of words and arty shots of the natural scenery, the kind which in Gladiator sounded like a few balladic lines in conventional mass prose, are the order of the day in almost every scene and form the characteristic meditative symbolism of the whole work. And when it's time to get verbal, the two wonderful leading actors make a powerful statement, and from the beginning they sparkle incredibly, and the level of their personal conflict works perhaps as well as it ever could – Affleck is a perfectly weird and unpredictable bastard, Pitt is incredibly charismatic and exudes such inner strength that I'd probably put on a mankini and declare my love to my high school maths teacher if he told me to. Except for the emotionally indifferent ending of their duel, which didn't satisfy me maybe because even Jesse himself, despite his charisma, is just a bastard you can hardly find your way to, this film deserves only praise. Deakins does a standard ethereal and therefore probably academically unappreciated job, the music will stay in your head long after the screening, and Andrew Dominik suffered a bout of filmmaking creativity that, with any luck, he will repeat. A different western, but more progressive than any other genre work in many years.
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A slow, but smoothly told story of fate, in which you know the end of all the characters the moment they are introduced at the beginning as a bunch of primitive rednecks hungry for money. Dominik's direction, coupled with Deakins' cinematography, has an almost hypnotic effect, and the film rides (thanks also to Nick Cave’s score) on a wave of feeling rather than shaking the colts damnably low. Pitt acts "only" by constantly pitying them and Affleck's slimy rat - you hate, you understand, and on and on. Either way, he’s the one who owns this film. It’s too bad the director isn't as good at creating relationships between the characters (briskness) as he is at atmosphere because then it would have been brilliant. This way it stayed just below the higher review scores.
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An artistic western is a combination that I would consider an oxymoron more than anything else. This movie did not disprove that for me. The comparison to Terrence Malick is quite fitting, as the pace is similar. Yes, there's a lot hidden beneath the surface, and it's certainly a gem, as some say. I just feel that the creators wanted to make something out of the western genre that it isn't, so they didn't really make a western at all, but rather an artistic biography with subtext. It is simply impossible to talk about tension here. I don't understand Dominik's view of the world, and frankly, I have no desire to. I imagine that the original novel is more interesting.
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It’s been a long time since I first saw this movie. Back then, I hadn’t yet been exposed to all the best western movies and so I rated it three stars. But now I thought that this movie couldn’t have been so bad and so I’ve risked watching the 153 minutes again. At that point, I minded the overly lengthy watch time once again, but I enjoyed the Pitt vs Affleck acting performances so much more. I was also enjoying the movie’s atmosphere along with the story itself and the best thing about it was the music by Nick Cave who had a few cameos himself. This movie is very original. I get the differing opinions: either you like it a lot or not. Either you respect its originality or not. At first I just respected it, but now I have to say that as far as cinematography goes, I enjoyed some of the moments a whole lot as well.
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