Review of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) by Jim F — 25 Apr 2013

Been dithering over watching this movie for ages due to lots of misguided reviews about this being boring to watch. I now realize that anybody that has that to say about this does not have any concept of beauty in movie making.

It was 2.5 hours long, and I wanted to watch it all over again immediately afterwards. The length was necessary for me to immerse myself into the attitudes of the time. I found myself in a world of male bravado, and testosterone fulled banter.

It was slow and precise in it's scenes in a way similar to Tarantino, with absorbing dialogue, detailed script, which creates a tension that only the strong can stay above. You just sense that those are times where people are bad, real bad.

There is no place for the weak. Fantastic performances by Pitt, Afleck and Rockwell, to name but a few. The imagery is atmospheric and beautiful. This is a great western. Its a wholesome epic that is as gripping as a thousand page novel that you can't put down.