kieran's Talk

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Director:Andrew Dominik
Released: 2007
Stars: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepherd and Sam Rockwell
Genre: Drama,Western
Country: USA







The last months of Jesse James's life, from meeting Robert Ford, a 19-year-old who idolizes Jesse, to the day Ford shoots him. Jesse's a wanted man, living under a pseudonym, carrying out a train robbery, disappearing to Kentucky, and reappearing to plan a bank holdup with Robert and Robert's brother as his team.

In the words of Lester Burnham;"S-P-E-C-T-A-C-U-L-A-R." I loved every minute of it. the 2 and a half hour lenght flew by. Films of this decade are getting beter and better every year. Seriously for me one of the best of this decade and one of the most underated films of last year.

The Assasination of Jesse James deserved more Oscar nominations than it did. For instance it deserved to be there instead of Juno, which didn't deserve it at all. The film is absolutly mesmerising beyond belief. For one thing I would be sitting there thinking, "hang on I'll just which a few minutes" and suddenly the lenght flew by. What I loved was the fact that, whilst it seems slow, it's meant to be that way. I notice a lot of critiscms of the pace but seriously I didn't ntoice it at all, because of the superb direction, which incidently deserved some Oscar nomination, and the fact you become a part of the story in some way. The use of landscape shots on many occasions and mid-shots emphaise my point and also shows progessions of the characters, in a sense that we see their progression over time and their personalities develop.

What also works well is the mangnificent use of diagetic music which blends into brilliantly with every frame of the film. For example in the final scene gives us a sense of inevitablity if you see what I mean. I think the soundtrack will live with me for days on end so so beautiful. Must buy it soon.

The acting in this is both superb and so well brought about. Brad pitt was excellent, surpassing all my expectations and brilliantly plays the outlaw well and depicts to us a well structed porrait of the famous man. Casey Affleck, well is an absolute revoulation brilliantly plays the so called innocent 20-yeard old to a man who turns into the very man he killed. Possibly one of the underated performances of 2007 and possibly one of my favourites. More than deserved his Oscar nomination. Both Pitt and Affleck have chemistry on screen which helps us as an audience really get a picture of what when on at that time and what sort of a relationship they had. Superb!

The cinematography plays a vital role in the film. The beautiful, surrean planscape created by Roger Deakins, is so vast that you feel engrossed in the film. The various amounts of colours which beautifully define what you are viewing on screen, absolutly magnificent. The narration to some people is off-pointing and some have sated that here. But seriously, you wouldn't know that story if it wasn't there. It helps to deterimine what is going on the the narrtive and helps us to cpmprehend certain derails that can't always be shown on screen. Mangificent filmaking indeed. I hope to see more films like this in the future.

I can';t recomend this enough. Technically superb, brilliantly directed, acted filmed and written. I have to admit that I still feel a little "wowed" if you get my meaning," a similar sort of thing which i felt whilst watching last year's : Into The Wild, Antonement, There Will Be Blood and No Country. All masterful pieces of film-making. All I can se is that I will look forward to the next film by Andrew Dominik, who has crafted one fantastic western and one which I think will be remembered. I will defiantly see more of Casey Affleck's work and I predict another nomination for him in the future.

I feel this film will leave me thinking and thinking about what I have just envisioned for days.

10/10

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