The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - 2007
I am convinced time will be kind to how truly magnificent The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford really is. There is an indescribable abstract mystery to what makes the film work so well. It is lyrical, poetic and detached without being cold and alienating (a la Public Enemies or even most recently Jane Eyre). While it's unfair and presumptuous to throw out words like classic or masterpiece but by god this fucking movie deserves it. Jesse James came out in the year of good to great movies in 2007 that also included No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood and Gone Baby Gone. With a roster like that it's easy to see how the film got lost in the shuffle.
Not only do I think Jesse James is the best movie of 2007, it is probably the best movie of that decade. Any movie-related list about the first ten years of the 2000s should include this movie. From Roger Deakins golden cinematography to Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' fucking brilliant score, every bit of this movie reaches near perfection. If anything, the film plays like the greatest visual tone-poem to the West ever made.
Despite the title of the film, the movie is not so much about the murder of one man but about the relationship between a fan and his idol. Casey Affleck plays the Jesse James fan Robert Ford as creepy, shy and almost unsypathetic. But somehow you begin to understand and at least empathize with his deeply sad and pathetic character. Affleck ended up receiving an well-deserved Oscar nomination for his performance. Brad Pitt gives one of the best performances of his career completely moving past his pretty-boy roles from the early 90s. Pitt plays Jesse as tired, worn-down and completely apathetic. It's as if Pitt's version of Jesse not only knows that his life is coming to an end but everything that supposedly made the West great is coming to an end as well.
While I'll do my best to give it justice, despite the film's romantic and poetic visuals the film is not mythologizing the West but obviously de-mythologizing it. Which seemed like a trend in the early 90s with the anti-westerns like Unforgiven, Dances with Wolves, and even on into the 2000s with the HBO show Deadwood. Each of these movies (and tv show) went out of their way to make such a strident point of showing the West as being a terrible place, trying to destroy the myth that 40 years worth of film and John Wayne put into place. While Unforgiven and Dances with Wolves confront this theme head-on, The Assassination of Jesse James is much more subtle and abstract which unfortunately confounds most people. But with the subtlety and abstractness Jesse James is a more rewarding viewing. It is a film you'll want to view, and discuss and ponder numerous times.
Watch it already, damnit.
