Like the previous year, 2007 was a great year for film. The biggest suprise of the year for me was this film The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford. It is a film that didn't get much attention at the time of it's release but is slowly building a solid fan base.What surprised me the most about the film was director Andrew Dominik's patience with the film's pace, and his resistance to change it after heavy pressure from the studio. The studio felt that the film was too slow and long (the original cut was 4 hours, the current cut is 2 hours 40 minutes), the studio wanted to cut a lot of the character sequences to make the film feel more like a traditional action packed western. Had Dominik gave in the film would not be nearly as special as it is.
The film, based on the novel by the same name, blends fact with dramatic fiction as it explores the relationship between Jesse James (Brad Pitt) and the man who will eventually kill him Robert Ford (Casey Afleck). The plot only gets marginally thicker from there as this is not a film with a complex story filled with twists and turns. Instead we follow these two men, both together and separately as their paths cross and eventually collide.
One interesting aspect of the film is how we see the world through both of the character's points of view, similarly to the omniscient third person point of view that the novel has. The most obvious examples of this is during the plain voiced narrator's voiceovers we see the world with a very hallow point of view surrounded by burred edges which helps us get into Jesse's obscure point of view.
The performances from the two leads are fantastic and the two are supported by a large cast of people who are now big names in Hollywood (Zooey Deschanel, Sam Rockwell, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeremy Renner).
The stunning visuals and the strong repetitive score work together in a bleak and beautiful harmony that create a mood like no other film.
I think that both these characters, Jesse James, and Robert Ford are very off-putting in different ways. Spending time with them is at first difficult, until we get to know both a little bit better. As who they are, and why the (very strange) assassination happens exactly the way it does is complicated to understand unless we know and feel empathy for who these two men become, and what their relationship means. But it certainly isn't a boring two hours-Every scene is littered with a subtext of imminent death and betrayal, reminiscent of the best parts No Country for Old Men.
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