The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
Director: Andrew Dominik
Text: Matt Bochenski
Something of a critical darling when released in cinemas, DVD is as good a time as any to reappraise Andrew Dominik’s pseudo-philosophical western.
Is it meditative, or just poorly paced? Are its characters opaque and introspective, or simply under sketched? Is Roger Deakin’s photography Oscar worthy, or faintly familiar?
After coming through a tortuous production period, perhaps we should just be glad that Jesse James made it to the screen at all, but, really, the battle scars it collected on the way are all too evident.
It’s a choppy, inconsistent, irresolute movie, albeit with two decent ‘movie star’ turns by Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck in the title roles.
