Brad Pitt shines as Jesse James (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (DVD))

Member Name: Whizz11

Product:	The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (DVD)
Date:	22/04/08 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brad Pitt, great characters, scenery, story, photography

Disadvantages: A bit long

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

My husband and I just bought this DVD at the weekend from HMV. It was £10.99. They did have a two disc DVD with Special/Bonus features which was £14.99 but we decided to go with the cheaper one.

I had been wanting to see this movie ever since it came out in the cinema. That may have something to do with the fact that Brad Pitt plays the title character, Jesse James. If you are a Brad fan then this movie is a must for you. He pretty much features in just about every scene and in my opinion is one of his best performances. He does look quite old and tired in this movie but I think that is just the nature of the character. He portrays Jesse James perfectly. He does make you question whether in the end Jesse was actually sorry for all the crimes he had committed and struggling with his conscience or whether he was actually really going quite mad!

Bob Ford is played by Casey Affleck, the brother of Ben Affleck. He was actually nominated for an academy award for best supporting actor for this role. In my opinion he played it very well, starting off from a star struck teenager, obsessed with his boyhood hero, Jesse, into a confident grown up man who did not like to be teased and eventually took the life of Jesse James.

The film, as the title suggests, chronicles the last days of Jesse James and the relationship between him and Robert (Bob) Ford. Jesse James is an outlaw, a notorious criminal but yet the United States' greatest hero. Robert Ford befriends Jesse James and gains his confidence (never fully in my opinion) and becomes his downfall. I am not going to ruin the rest of the film for you but I do definitely recommend you seeing it

The film is led in parts by a great voice over that moves the story along and keeps you up to date with what is happening. At times it is hard to keep up with the outlaws and the various members of Jesse James's gang as they all have nicknames. This film is a Western but in my opinion not like the normal Western with lots of horse chases and gun battles. In fact even though there are some violent parts I would not classify this a very violent movie. My husband thought it was quite slow moving but I thought the way the film moved through the story was told very well and needed to be that way to show how increasingly paranoid Jesse got in his final days. My husband also thought that it was a bit too long and I sort of agree, it was a long movie (runs for 153 minutes) but definitely not too long to be boring by any means. I think it needed to be this long to develop that relationship and show how it played out in real time.

The cinematography was great in this film. It was quite a dark movie with a lot of the shots very dark and gloomy. The use of light in some of the scenes was absolutely incredible. At one point there is a still of light being shot through the trees and the image was very moving. Also a scene with a train in it and lanterns that the gang are holding up was done very well too.

Coincidentally, the film production company associated with this movie was Plan B production, the company that Brad Pitt set up with Jennifer Aniston when they were still together.

The DVD is rated 15 for strong language and sexual references.

Summary: A brilliant twist ont he classic Western and a great story telling DVD