Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Mary-Louise Parker, Sam Rockwell, Sam Shepard, Zooey Deschanel, Paul Schneider, Jeremy Renner, Garret Dillahunt, Michael Parks
Written by Andrew Dominik, based on the novel by Ron Hansen
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £19.99
DVD Region 2 | Runtime 155 minutes
Directed by Andrew Dominik
It's strange that the negative focus on this year's Oscar nominations was on the "overlooked" personnel from Atonement. The Assassination of Jesse James was similarly ignored in most of the major categories — and, as this DVD release proves, it's easily top three for 2007. Yes, it was a very strong year for the Oscar-worthy but really, watch this again, revisit There Will Be Blood and then tell me which one is the more elegant, beautifully shot, exquisitely controlled and acted. Admittedly, my feelings on Daniel Day-Lewis's frankly rubbish shouty mugging are well documented around this site and I'm apparently in a very small minority, but I hope that, when that overblown slice of Americana hits the small screen, the air will be filled with the sound of critics eating a lot of humble pie. We shall see but, basically, the team behind Jesse James were robbed, which is sort of ironic, given the subject matter.
James (Pitt) is still a Western legend, a man whose Robin Hood public persona and popularity was deeply at odds with the brutal, violent truth. Andrew (Chopper) Dominik's emotional epic focuses on the final years of James's life. With his brother and fellow criminal retiring for a quiet life, James is forced to recruit some new crew for a train robbery. Among them is Robert Ford (Affleck), the brother of Jesse's close friend Charley (Rockwell, in typically excellent form). Robert is a long-time admirer of James and his adulation is obvious, something Jesse uses to toy with Robert. It may start as teasing, but it's the first sign that the gang is falling apart, that paranoia is creeping in and that Robert's resentment will lead to the "tragedy" of the title.
To keep an audience spellbound over the best part of three hours is a hell of an achievement. To keep them spellbound when the title's given you the outcome? That's bordering on genius. Dominik's film digs deep behind the mythology of James, revealing a far more believable mercurial truth than the old Hollywood would have it. Pitt's performance is magnetic and menacing, making Ford's hero-worship understandable. Even so, the actor playing Ford could have left the audience in a cop-out, simplistic haze of homo-eroticism, but Affleck is note perfect, adding genuine character and character flaws to his portrayal. It's not worthy of the Best Supporting Actor nomination Affleck received; it's worthy of the Best Actor statue as, frankly, he widdles all over Day Lewis's noise and facial tics. Affleck acts. Day Lewis did Popeye on speed. The Assassination of Jesse James... is not an easy film but it is a visually stunning, intelligent and deeply human one. Academy? You got this one horribly wrong.
EXTRAS * The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is, undoubtedly, a five star movie... which makes the DVD package perhaps the most disappinting of the past 12 months. The film is presented in a two-disc set, with a glossy 44-page book bound-in. It looks great but you rapidly discover it's a milksop gesture to hide the complete lack of extras. There's no commentary. There are no deleted scenes. There are no 'making-of' featurettes. All there is, in fact, is that book, which you'll maybe flick through once. So what's on that second disc? A 31 minute documentary about the life of the real Jesse James. It's excellent and concise but... a whole disc for a 31 minute documentary? The film alone makes the package a worthwhile purchase but it's just as well. Without the quality of that, this would feel like a huge, blatant rip-off.