Whew, glad this format allows titles of that length. Say what you will about that clunker; it did more than anything else to get me interested. Sure, Brad Pitt said this was his favorite of his own works, and it got many honors, but if not for the title, I would have neglected to put it on my queue.
The story begins shortly before 19-year-old "Bob" Ford (Casey Affleck) joins the James gang, of which his older brother, Charley (Sam Rockwell), is already a member. Bob has admired Jesse (Pitt) since childhood, but you know the saying "Never meet your heroes"? Between Jesse's behavior and Bob's unwanted entanglement with gang treachery, collecting a reward on Jesse starts to look like a good idea.
The titular event happens in the third act, of course, but the story doesn't end as soon afterward as you might expect. Indeed, much like the denouement of Million Dollar Baby, the aftermath of the assassination may just be where the movie really gets to its point. How do the Fords deal with their status, which brings mixed feelings from the public? After all, Jesse was popular as outlaws go, and Bob was no knight in shining armor.
For my part at least, I sympathized with Bob toward the end. Sure, he didn't choose the most dignified method for the most honorable reasons, but he was in a tight spot. And Jesse was pretty cowardly in his own right, not to mention far more of a violent criminal.
The rest of the film is basically about fleshing out Jesse and Bob, with occasional moments of action. Both characters are interesting, and both actors shine, even if they're a bit older than they're supposed to be and Affleck mumbles a lot. (Sam Shepard is way past Frank James' 38, but Frank reportedly looked prematurely old.) Descendants claim that these figures have never been captured more accurately on screen, despite some revisionism and quite a few anachronisms.
I get the impression of relatively high artistry, or at least the intention thereof. Not the beautiful sort found in mid-20th-century westerns like Shane, but the R-rated sort with unsightly bullet exit wounds, nevertheless exhibiting a form of poetry. I first noticed this with the narrated intro. Unfortunately, third-person omniscient narration doesn't work nearly as well on screen as in print. With few exceptions, this not being one of them, it makes for dry exposition.
More unfortunately, it may still be for the best as a time saver: The title was a good clue to how bloated the movie would be. The most common complaint is that the 160 minutes is much longer than necessary, with a lot of scenes that don't really add anything. Director Andrew Dominik, who hasn't made anything else that I'd heard of before, had actually made a 240 minute cut before a test audience persuaded him to trim. He would have had to trim more if not for Pitt's stalwart support, which also guaranteed the retention of the book's title.
This may explain why the creation had to be delayed while the makers looked for a willing studio. True to their fears, it made little at the box office compared with its budget. Should you help make up for that, however belatedly, by checking it out? That depends whether you're up for an OK modern western from the minor revival era that brought us the 3:10 to Yuma remake, one that offers a study of a few personalities above all.
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