Westerns seem to have trouble drawing a big audience these days; while there have been other critically-praised Western dramas over the past several years, none of them have generated a big box office return. With this film, it seems that even the presence of Brad Pitt couldn’t overcome whatever concerns an overly-long title for an overly-long (160 minutes) film created for movie fans. (A lot of the extra length is the flip side of the lauded cinematography – lots of scenic shots.)
That’s too bad, because while the movie could have easily been trimmed by 30 minutes or more, Pitt and Affleck are both excellent. This is actually more of a psychological drama than it is a Western per se. Sure, there are robberies and shoot ‘em ups and the like, but the heart of this film lies in trying to explain, or at least lay out, what brought Jesse and Ford to the moment when Ford shot Jesse in the back as he stood on a chair to straighten a picture on the wall. His wife, Zee (Mary-Louise Parker, who gets very little to do), and children are in the house; Robert Ford’s brother Charley (Sam Rockwell) is in the room, watching, and it’s obvious Jesse has a pretty darn good idea of what’s going to happen when he turns his back on Robert. But he does it anyway.
Much of the film is told from Ford’s point of view, and that gives some sense of his thinking. He grew up idolizing Jesse, and maybe the man in person doesn’t quite match up to his dreams. Maybe the problem is that the James Gang is clearly petering out. Brother Frank (Sam Shepard in a brief role) has already quit and headed back East to be respectable; the replacement gang members are people Ford’s either related to or known for some time, nothing special. (Among that group, Paul Schneider’s especially good as Dick Liddil.) The government’s getting closer and closer, and the governor of Missouri (James Carville … yes, that James Carville) has sworn to get Jesse no matter what.
And, Jesse himself? He’s seeing treachery everywhere, feeling danger closing in around him, and getting meaner and meaner. The only time he seems to be truly pleasant is when he’s with Zee and the kids. He seems all too aware that things can’t end well, but doesn’t know how to where he’s headed. And so, there’s that picture that needs to be straightened.
Once the deed is done, the Ford brothers take their show on the road, performing reenactments of how Robert brought down the great Jesse James. It’s from the more belligerent audience members at those shows that the coward label comes to be attached to Robert, and the film takes us through to his own death.
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