The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: Don't Tell Me What Happens!

I looked around at the star-filled cast of Assassination and realized everyone has been in a better movie. Sam Rockwell was in Joshua and Matchstick Men. Brad Pitt had been in Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Se7en. Casey Affleck just came out with Gone Baby Gone and Ocean's 11. I kept watching, and as the movie became longer and longer, the list of better movies continued. Rockwell: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Heist, and A Midsummer's Night Dream. Pitt: Spy Game, The Mexican, Twelve Monkeys. Affleck: Good Will Hunting, Soul Survivors, the Ocean's 13. In the end, I added Rockwell's Charlie's Angels, Pitt's Troy, and Affleck's Ocean's 12. That's pretty bad.

The movie follows Robert Ford (Affleck) and his brother Charley (Rockwell) from where they are involved in Jesse James' (Pitt) last train robbery until Ford's eventual betrayal. The movie is ultimately an hour's worth of material stretched and dramatized for two hours and forty minutes. The bank robbery is good, and after the assassination is good. The two hours between is not.

At first, it looks like it will be a movie about Ford and James, their friendship and companionship. Ford is James' biggest fan. He is obsessed. James likes the attention, keeps Ford around the house to help out him and his wife, but James eventually becomes wary of Ford, as he says, "Do you want to be like me, or do you want to BE me?"

Farther into the film, we see into the drama of the henchmen away from the infamous outlaw. Wood, James' not-too-bright cousin, developes a rivalry with the other henchman Nick Liddel, the quick-witted ladiesman. (Guess who he sleeps with.) This leads to one of the better shoot-outs I've seen, but that seems to be the end of that.

In the end, it seems to focus on the popularity of it all. Jesse James is both loved and notorious. He is a celebrity, yet when he walks down the street no one recognizes him and he hides the stumb where his finger was shot off. He goes to church, plays with his kids, and lives a quiet life with his guns around his waist. Ford looks for the fame he wishes he had, living in James' celebrity fame from the other end of the law and doing it from stage. He expects the act of killing James will make him what James was, applauded for being the next act in the soap opera.

There is scenes were we fear for Ford falling victim to James' paranoia (only his paranoia is real). In addition, the guilty look on Charley Ford's face is enough to say what Robert Ford is feeling in sorrow for killing James. The celebrity aspect of it all is explained after the assassination, and it would be more appealing if it didn't take two hours to get to.

In short, it is what could have been three movies, only not much to it because it takes its time to let us look at beautiful scenery and accurate sets. It needed to be short and concise, focusing on its good points and elaborating on those. Instead, it gives us too much about too many characters. We know Nick Liddel is going to sleep with the woman, so we don't need to see it played out as much as it is. We know how it is going to end, so not every level and stage of Robert Ford planning the assassination needs to be kept. Not all of James' henchmen are interesting, nor do we necessarily care their are others besides Liddel, Wood, and the Fords. Too much unnecessary screentime takes away from the truly memorable parts of the movie that are at the beginning, end, and a single shoot-out in the middle.

Is it entertaining? Schedule a nap for two hours after the first ten minutes.

Is it marketable? No. Eight movies came out on the same weekend it did. It wasn't even intimating.

Is it memorable? Yes, for those moments you are awake.

My suggestion? See if 3:10 to Yuma is still playing. If not, wait for 3:10 to Yuma to come out on DVD. The only thing this movie did for me was make me want to watch Yuma again.