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| Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck as Jesse James and Robert Ford |
As the duo of Andrew Dominik and Brad Pitt prepare to release their second collaboration Killing Them Softly, the time has never seemed so perfect to get on my soap box and hail praises to one of the most underrated, under-discussed, and least appreciated films of all time. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford boasts a cast of the aforementioned Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell, Jeremy Renner, Mary Louise-Parker, and Zooey Deschanel,, a title that, although long, is rather memorable, and is about one of the most famous bandits in American history. Despite this, the film wasn’t even able to break $4 million at the box office. Sometimes films like this are able to create a “cult” status among a fan base, this again, was not the case. Unfortunately, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford has been destined to carry on as a film seen by few, remembered by less, and known solely for its sentence of a title. With a title this descriptive it is hard to think that there is any mystery or interest at all in the plot, especially one that takes 160 minutes to unfold. The interesting part of this story is not that Robert Ford killed Jesse James, nor is it why, as Robert will say himself “He was going to kill me first… and the reward money.” What is interesting about this story is both watching how such an admirer of Jesse James could later turn into his killer and the most fascinating aspect is simply the use of the word “assassination” in the title.
The first scene for Robert “Bob” Ford (Casey Affleck) shows him a youthful man trying to woo Jesse’s brother Frank into allowing him into the James Gang. The beauty of these opening scenes is seeing Bob’s wide-eyed admiration for Jesse (Brad Pitt). He has his whole life ahead of him and all he wants to do is be just like the infamous Jesse James. After that first night’s train robbery there is an exchange that is incredibly telling of both Bob’s past and Jesse’s experience. While sitting in chairs on the porch, smoking cigars Bob pulls out a newspaper clipping he has describing the two James brothers to ensure that he wouldn’t get the two confused upon first meeting them. Jesse turns towards Bob and simply asks him “Do you want to be like me, or do you want to BE me.” The remainder of the film’s first two hours are spent dealing with the next two years of Bob and Jesse’s lives whilst they are together and apart trying to answer that very question. Where the movie gets creative is instead of relying on a betrayal ,specific act, or major epiphany that turns Jesse from Robert’s hero to enemy, there is instead a gradual buildup of realization that Jesse is not the hero the media has portrayed him to be. Charley Ford (Sam Rockwell) has tried to explain this to Bob since the beginning. His warnings are ignored, however, because Charley has never been the brightest person in the world. The slow buildup and the dynamic that forms between Robert Ford as he begins his quest to kill Jesse James is impossible to ignore and makes the film a worthwhile watch on its own.
It doesn’t spoil anything to say that Bob succeeds in his attempt to kill Jesse James as it is implied in the title. The only lie in the title is that he does not assassinate him. Assassinations are for Presidents, leaders, and heroes. Jesse James was none of these things. It was previously mentioned that the media once portrayed Jesse James as a hero or even as a modern day Robin Hood. The most intriguing aspect of this portrayal is how much it still applies. Jesse James was a member of the Confederate Army and because of this was thought to be a Southern Loyalist and would only rob to help fellow Southerners in need. There is no evidence to substantiate these claims as Jesse would kill or rob anyone as long as it helped out himself. The movie takes note of this fact and refuses to build him up as the hero the country so desperately needed. Instead, Pitt and Dominik portray Jesse James the way they felt he truly was; an outlaw trying to get rich. The portrayal was so accurate that descendants from the James family has called it the most accurate version of Jesse James on film. Unfortunately for Jesse, that means he was no hero and is unworthy of the praise and admiration he receives. The title of this movie is very precise and it is believed that is the reason Pitt had it written in his contract that it could not be changed. More than just showing an admirer and friend turn into a vengeful assassin, this movie is about what is wrong with society’s portrayal of an essentially evil man. Jesse James is not all bad. He seemed to be great with both his wife and his kids. His moral compass was clearly broken or ignored. The more disturbing portion of the movie’s portrayal of events occurs after Jesse’s death. Robert Ford should be considered a hero for his actions. He was able to take down a wanted man who was planning his next robbery. As the movie focuses on his life after the murder he is talking to his girlfriend Dorothy Evans (Zooey Deschanel) and he tells her “You know what I expected? Applause… They didn’t applaud.” There was a period of time where more people could correctly identify Robert Ford than the President of the United States, but that fame came with animosity. The public ended up taking Jesse’s side and considered Bob a coward for both murdering his friend and for doing so by shooting him in the back. What ends up being most bothersome is what the narrator says as the final minutes play out about Bob:
Even as he circulated his saloon he knew that the smiles disappeared when he passed by. He received so many menacing letters that he could read them without any reaction except curiosity. He kept to his apartment all day, flipping over playing cards, looking at his destiny in every King and Jack. Edward O'Kelley came up from Bachelor at 1 P.M. on the 8th. He had no grand scheme, no strategy, no agreement with higher authorities. Nothing but a vague longing for glory, and a generalized wish for revenge against Robert Ford. Edward O'Kelley would be ordered to serve a life sentence in the Colorado Penitentiary for second degree murder. Over seven thousand signatures would eventually be gathered in a petition asking for O'Kelley's release, and in 1902, Governor James B. Ullman would pardon the man. There would be no eulogies for Bob, no photographs of his body would be sold in sundries stores, no people would crowd the streets in the rain to see his funeral cortege, no biographies would be written about him, no children named after him, no one would ever pay twenty-five cents to stand in the rooms he grew up in.
The underlined portion is the most upsetting. A man who had never met Bob hated him so greatly that the only solution was murder and because he killed the man who lawfully killed Jesse James, the public sided with him. He committed murder against an unsuspecting man and was pardoned because that man shot the infallible Jesse James. While these events transpire over the last moments of the film, a case could easily be made that a better title could be The Assassination of Robert Ford, the Man Who Killed Jesse James, by the Coward Edward O’Kelley.
One of the most beautiful films ever made from story, to cinematography and from acting to score, deserves a watch despite the title explaining the end of the story. The movie doesn’t care about what happened nearly as much as why it happened and how society hasn’t changed as much as we would like to think. No, the public’s memories of Robert Ford will never be as fond as Jesse James and he will not be memorialized or idolized by the masses. That doesn’t matter because Andrew Dominik has swayed one man’s opinion of Bob. Mine.
