By Katherine Ramsland
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| James Starrs |
Some people think that the outlaw Jesse James faked his death in 1882, escaped, and lived to father more children. A surprising number have laid claim to being his descendants. Yet an exhumation in 1995, conducted by law professor James Starrs and including mitochondrial DNA analysis, concluded that Jesse is in fact in his official grave. Thus, this tale of his assassination is based in fact. Better yet, it's luxuriant dialogue recalls the best episodes of Deadwood, and the controlled performances yield some truly stunning moments. This film deserves a standing ovation.
Oddly enough, despite starring Brad Pitt, distribution of the film was limited and reviews have been, on a scale of one to five, all of the above. One calls it a rare work of art, another a classic Western, while as many others say it should have stayed on the shelf. Those who appreciate the nuances of painstaking cinema will likely spot the film's positive qualities, for there are many. Just the brief interlude in which James handles a pair of snakes, naming them after his enemies, is thick with unspoken layers of meaning which reverberate long after the scene has passed.
Pitt acts with his eyes in ways that make whatever he then says something completely different from what it would otherwise seem. This technique prompts us to watch him closely, and makes his larger-than-life rendition of Jesse completely credible. His presence demands attention.
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| Andrew Dominik |
Andrew Dominik, the writer and director, based this work on Ron Hansen's novel of the same name. Dominik spends much time on mood, setting and atmosphere, time well spent. So does his effort to make us grasp that shooting a man is a momentous act and that a life snuffed out is more than just someone falling to the ground. Dominik orchestrates a melancholy respect for the realities of the transient, often short, lives of desperadoes.
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| Casey Affleck |
This is not a biography of Jesse James, recapitulating his escapades of renown. The film is rather a study of his later years, as he grew arthritic (at 34), paranoid, and ambivalent about his notoriety. It's also the story of a callow wannabe, Robert Ford (Casey Affleck), following the aging thug whose exaggerated exploits have misshaped the boy's identity. The scene in which Ford recites the things he and James have in common, as James' eyes grow subtly more snake-like, is a model of barely-controlled, simmering danger. Ford's star-struck devotion gradually curdles to disappointment, humiliation, frustration and a violent climax.
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