This month has seen something rare in today’s movie climate: the theatrical release of two Westerns. However, while 3:10 to Yuma and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford share a genre, they are very different films.
In fact, each is actually comparable to its title: one short and quick, the other long and slow. 3:10 to Yuma has a clear destination while The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford meanders around the story of two men—and the event that connects them. In fact, while Yuma builds to an action boil, Jesse James begins with the notorious James brothers’ last robbery and then goes into a long simmer to methodically study what led to James’ death.
In a way, 3:10 to Yuma is what Warner Bros. wanted Jesse James to be: a taut and intelligent gunslinger. But that was not exactly the vision of director and screenwriter Andrew Dominik, who wanted his film to be a historical and epic character study. Apparently, Dominik won the tug of war. More art film than action film, Jesse James is more comparable to the quietly contemplative films of Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line, The New World) than it is to most gunslinging westerns.
Like many of Malick’s works, Jesse James takes a historical moment and analyzes it in a study of the psychological, environmental and individual factors at play behind the action. For some, the film will be beautiful and poetic. To others, slow and pondering. I found it somewhere in the middle: a realistic and insightful character study that, despite an arrestingly powerful final third, isn’t wholly satisfying because of a long middle, slow plotting, and a lack of story focus.
The plot meanders after the Blue Cut Train Robbery in the movie’s first 30 minutes. Frank James (Sam Shepard) decides to call it quits and leaves his younger brother Jesse (Brad Pitt) because he finds him “peculiar.” Jesse then separates from the Blue Cut crew to lay low. The film then takes a long, slow detour to follow the various gang members as they run, hide, betray one another, and try to make their own claims to glory.
What bogs the movie down seems to be Dominik’s love affair with his material. He apparently found so much interesting history in his research on the James gang that he tries to tell too much. There are long, complicated subplots about various James associates that do not add to the film’s true point: the eventual assassination of Jesse James by Robert Ford.
However, when the movie does concentrate on James and Ford (Casey Affleck), it is one of the strongest, most palpable character studies I’ve seen. It’s a credit to Pitt, Affleck and Dominik that these characters and their psyches become so real.
Affleck’s Robert Ford is a weasely and arrogant young man. But Affleck’s depth of character shows this arrogance is only so deep—it’s actually a cover for a very tender ego and a thirst for affirmation. When his pride is bruised, he burns white hot with a viscous anger. Introduced into James’ gang by his brother Charlie (the always entertaining Sam Rockwell), Robert is obsessed with James. In fact, James asks him at one point, “You wanna be like me or you wanna be me?” In truth, Ford just wants to be respected. And to him, the pinnacle of respect is Jesse James. “I’ve been a nobody all my life,” Robert says. ” [But] Jesse James has always seemed as a big as a tree.” Eventually, Ford decides that cutting down that tree is how he can get the attention he deserves.
On the other side is Jesse James, a complex character who Pitt plays as if his emotions have an on/off switch—sullen and silent one minute, goofy and gregarious the next. In one scene, he dances a carefree jig—and then cruelly beats a man bloody. James’ moodiness never feels artificial or out of place. Instead, Pitt subtly conveys that this man’s moodiness is but a symptom of the burden he carries. He’s a man about to crack under the strain of the life he’s chosen—a life of secrets, danger, betrayal and paranoia. His moments of merriness and cordialness are but a curtain over worry, panic, and fear.
Therefore, while Ford is losing his soul to his inner demons, James, who lost his soul long ago, is like a dying man reassessing where he’s gone wrong. He knows he’s not the man he once was. At one point he murmurs about himself, “I wonder about the man who’s gone so wrong.”
The internal battles will set up good self-reflection and discussion for Christian viewers. They also place James and Ford on a collision course. After more than two hours, the film gains real momentum. In fact, the final scenes with Jesse and Robert are a taut symphony of tension and anxiety—much of it on a silent, character level, a rare thing in film today. It’s a powerful tone to end on.
In fact, the tone of the film’s created world—in addition to the acting—is a strong suit. Jesse James captures the gritty, lonely and slow reality of pioneer life in addition to projecting the paranoia, danger and aggression of being an outlaw. This feel of realism is enhanced by Dominik’s depiction of old west violence. It’s not slick and sensationalized Hollywood violence. If shoot-’em-ups make violence sexy, this one makes it repulsing. The few gunfights are stark, messy and brutal depictions of real-life violence—filled with missed shots, blood, tears, and awkward pauses. It’s all grotesque, clumsy and ugly.
But the violence is the only ugly thing here. Cinematographer Roger Deakins (Fargo) creates a beautiful palette for the actors. He uses the environment well with several touches to add a dreamy nostalgic bliss. He blurs edges, plays with silhouettes, and manipulates light and shadows. A hauntingly beautiful score by Nick Cave further enhances the film’s atmosphere.
These artful touches add to the complicated and deep portrait Dominik paints of Jesse James and his killer Robert Ford. It’s just too bad he got so distracted painting the figures in the background.
Talk About It
Discussion starters- Robert Ford and Jesse James are both plagued by inner demons. What internal weaknesses and temptations do you see in them? How do these issues manifest and lead them to sin and/or destruction? Read Mark 7:21-23. How do you see that verse in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford?
- Why do you think Robert Ford did not get what he wanted after James’ death? Why didn’t the public treat him as he thought they would? Was Ford’s action on James just? Why or why not? What makes him either a coward or a hero?
- Ford and James wrestle with common internal struggles. What traits in either do you see in yourself? How do you fight to keep those weaknesses form leading you astray?
- In the final scene between James and Ford, what do you think is going on in James’ head? Does he purposely lower his guard? If so, why do you think he would?
The Family Corner
For parents to considerThe Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is rated R for some strong violence and brief sexual references. The sexuality is limited to crude conversation, but the strong language and brutal, realistic gun violence makes the R-rating a warning to take seriously. There are more than one shot to the head and bloody beatings. There’s also a shocking scene of two snakes being decapitated.
Photos © Copyright Warner Bros. Pictures
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