The Deconstruction of The Assassinaiton of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

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.

When Your Favorite Actors Become Stars

Tomorrow I will be able to say "I have been watching Jennifer Lawrence since Winter's Bone and it will make me sound like a snob because The Hunger Games will be making massive amounts of money and the next tween sensation will take off along with Lawrence's career and popularity. There is both an upside and downside to the actors you love becoming mainstream. The upside is they are more likely to do more films, they may get offered bigger roles, people won't look at you as though you're insane for being able to rattle off eight films that they have been in because they still have no idea who you're talking about. The downside is they will have more commercial film opportunities, which can lead to worse films, they may get typecast, and it takes a little bit of the thunder out of it when the whole world loves someone you have loved for so long.

Take Zooey Deschanel for instance. She has been an indie queen for as long as she has been around. Many people loved her as the rebellious sister in Almost Famous or as the smart ass in The Good Girl but the world has finally fallen for her as the "adorkable" Jess in Fox's TV show New Girl. There used to be almost a club for Zooey fans. When you found someone who got it you had plenty to talk about because you didn't just enjoy her movies, but the types of movies she was in. Now you have to work to find someone who doesn't know who she is. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, and her career will only blossom because of it, but it is a little disheartening to know that your little secret is a world wide celebrity.

Perhaps a more interesting example would be Twilight's Kristen Stewart. Before the film came out people were saying they didn't like the casting choice and I just assumed it's because they were jealous. I would try to defend her by saying that I liked her in In the Land of Women, which opened the year before. Little did I know that she can play one type of character and apparently that isn't what Bella is supposed to be. I went from thinking I had found an up and coming exciting actress only to find out she isn't even an okay actress without ever seeing Twilight. Now it feels almost wrong to enjoy a Kristen Stewart film, let alone two (Adventureland) all because she got too famous.

Sometimes roles that seem like a surefire hit don't end up sending an actor or actress into super stardom. Before last summer I posted on my Facebook "For the record I've liked Rose Byrne since Sunshine." I posted this after she had starred in Get Him to the Greek in the funniest role not belonging to P. Diddy and Insidious. I knew that she had both Bridesmaids and X-Men: First Class (with the aforementioned Jennifer Lawrence) coming out and wanted people to be on the lookout for her. Instead people mentioned how great Melissa McCarthy and Michael Fassbender were in the roles in those films. I still kind of enjoy finding Byrne in movies and knowing that she isn't yet the star she is almost certain to become.

Essentially all I am trying to get to is this: I liked Jennifer Lawrence before it was trendy and Jessica Chastain better stick with her artsy films and avoid the blockbusters because it's more fun to have favorite actors that make me unique rather than claiming I love the same person as the rest of the world. Plus, I really like helping people discover these actors before the world does it for them. So go watch every Andrew Garfield movie before The Amazing Spider-Man. It's worth it because they are all fantastic and you will have the ability to say "I have been watching him since I first saw Boy A."

Film Review: Like Crazy

 

I once read a comment about Sundance that grasps the essence of Like Crazy: Indie filmmakers spend 10 years writing the perfect screenplay and don't spend 10 seconds thinking about how it is going to be shot. And thus we have Like Crazy, a film with a well thought out storyline with some poor cinematography. The film itself is about the love between Jacob (Star Trek's Anton Yelchin) and Anna (Brideshead Rivisted's Felicity Jones). Anna is a Brit living in LA on an education visa studying to become a writer when she meets Jacob. Their first date is remarkable for its simplicity and honesty. So many romance movies make grand gestures and make the romance seem artificial and over amplified. Here they don't downplay the importance of having fun and enjoying the sweet moments that real relationships are all about in the beginning. The date involves coffee, awkward silences, nervous laughter, gradually giving way to better conversation and real laughter. At one point Anna invites him up to her room and he sits in a chair and mocks it for being uncomfortable. It's the type of moment that is unnecessary but so telling about their personalities.
The relationship is going very well when Anna has to return home for the summer before she can return to LA and Jacob. They are dealing with the pressure of saying goodbye and spending the next few months apart when Anna, impulsively, decides the day before she leaves that she won't go. They spend the next two and a half months together and fall hopelessly in love with each other. The realism of their relationship makes you fall in love with them. Since Jacob doesn't have a whole lot of money, for Anna's birthday he makes her a new chair at his carpentry job and carves the bottom with the words "LIKE CRAZY." Again, it's these little things that make the characters so likable.
When Anna does go home for a week she comes back stateside and sends Jacob a text saying she is going through customs and to head to the airport. I mention the text message because unlike Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, this film uses electronic communication effectively and accurately. Jacob arrives at the airport with flowers only to learn that by breaking her education visa, she is unable to enter the country on her work visa and is immediately escorted back to England. This is the first real trouble the relationship hits and the rest of the film is about the characters trying to overcome the obstacle of being forced apart over a span of a few years.
Jennifer Lawrence (X-Men: First Class) makes a somewhat brief, but memorable appearance in an otherwise minimal cast that includes three other characters that have equally brief roles. For a film completely centered on two people, the pacing is never too slow and the characters are likable and behave believably enough to make it work. Although the movie doesn't always look the best, there are certainly some scenes that rely almost entirely on some interesting, inventive camera work. The appeal of this movie lies almost entirely on its raw and accurate portrayal of two people who love each other, like crazy.

B.

New Releases: March 20 Edition

Today is a very exciting day for fans of all types of films. Literally. Suspense? Check Mystery? Check. Dramedy? Check. Comedy? Check. Family? Biggest check of the year (until Pixar's Brave comes out). For the second week in a row I have been eagerly awaiting Tuesday and keep in mind with my four day work week Tuesday is technically Monday.
 Let's start with The Muppets. Not only was this the best children's movie of 2011, far better than the dreadful crop of animated films, it was one of the best films of the year period. For children you have muppets, massive amounts of color, music, laughs, and more muppets. More importantly, for the adult there is the nostalgia that accompanies The Muppets, cameos and pop culture references to-boot, humor, a comprehensible storyline, and a movie that is aware of what it is supposed to be. The moment Oscar winning song "Man or Muppet" written by Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords is over you will know exactly what you're in for and you'll be excited to continue the ride. If that doesn't get you than Chris Cooper playing the villain with his historic maniacal laugh will.
The only film that can rival my excitement for The Muppets release is that of the David Fincher version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. The title sequence of which sets up the rest of the film brilliantly. Karen O. and Trent Reznor of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Nine Inch Nails respectively composed a fantastic rendition of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" plays scenes of a black liquid metal form different objects and a torch sets fire to different things (in a nod to the sequel The Girl Who Played With Fire) and show you Fincher's vision for the film. It will be dirty, gretty, dark, and abrasive. Rooney Mara has gone from an unknown to a highly buzzed and Oscar nominated actress over the last two years and her performance in this film will explain why. It is not for everyone, but those who can stomach the brutality of it all will be in for a treat.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy earned Gary Oldman into an Academy Award nominee after decades of mind blowing performances. The film itself is confusing, elaborate, smart, very British, and very well put together. The confusion is done on purpose as the director wants you to feel the confusion that George Smiley (Oldman) is suffering through while trying to figure out who the spy in his department is. You will learn who the spy is by the film's end but you won't see it coming.
Other releases include the Roman Polanski film Carnage that got mixed reviews but has a talented cast and interesting enough premise to warrant a rental and the raunchy comedy The Sitter starring Jonah Hill. Neither film got much promotion and were hardly in theaters, even in major cities so now there's finally a chance for the masses to see them.

Film Review: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. The title alone is intriguing. Yes, the film is very aware that they are discussing fishing in a desert. In fact Dr. Alfred Jones (played by Ewan McGregor in a full Irish accent) mocks the idea in his first scene of the film. The film starts off a little strangely. Enter Harriet (Emily Blunt) typing an email to Dr. Jones explaining that Sheikh Muhammed (Amr Waked) would like to bring the sport of fishing to his homeland. As she is typing and doing a voice over the words are popping up on screen like those really annoying Denis Leary Ford F-150 commercials. Dr. Jones reads and replies to said email with the words again showing up on screen. Only this time, he is reading aloud whilst typing and his wife throws in an adjective he agrees with, backspaces and replaces. These are the only times that either voice overs or out of nowhere text appear in the film. While I am happy they got rid of the technique I question why it was ever there to begin with as it seemed unnecessary. Really, how often do you speak aloud as you type?
The film hits a stride after it's rocky opening and is fairly fast paced. Well, as fast paced as a film about trying to build a river in Yemen with salmon so the Sheikh can fish at home can be. Harriet has a soldier boyfriend, Robert (Tom Milson), who she knows for all of three weeks before he is shipped off to Afghanistan. He asks her to wait for him, a move that strangely doesn't feel strange or forced at all. It's when Harriet gets alarming news about Robert the film really picks up emotionally. You finally get a connection to the characters, Dr. Jones especially. The three main characters of Harriet, Dr. Jones, and Sheikh Muhammed are all remarkably likeable, which is a surprise for most films these days.
The issue is, the films flaws are too big and too many to overlook. Just when I was thinking how interesting it was to watch one relationship grow stronger as another one is failing, they throw a curve ball and turn what seemed to be a great friendship with no romantic chemistry into a love story that felt out of place. There was no "aha!" moment that made you feel that Dr. Jones and Harriet were falling in love. There was no gradual build up towards it either. It was simply a writer who felt that the characters needed something to drive them. I am a firm believer that a movie should be about characters that react to a situation or event that happens to them. Not about characters who have interesting things happen to them to drive a plot. I get that it's hard not to fall in love with Emily Blunt, especially with her native accent, but this storyline was unnecessary and the film suffered because of it.
Another flaw is the first couple scenes with Sheikh Mohammed. His character starts off as an all-knowing insight to everything. He has a philosophy and can pinpoint the thoughts in everyone's head without them saying a word. They back off of this as the film continues to make his character much more entertaining and enjoyable. Being a Sheikh and dealing with the English is a good way to get yourself noticed by people trying to keep the Western world out of the Middle East. This turns into two separate assassination attempts that have little impact on the story and surprisingly little impact on the Sheikh himself.
The other main issue I had with the film was Kristen Scott Thomas' character Patricia Maxwell is the press secretary for the Prime Minister and is an absolute waste of screen time. The worst part is when they have her iChatting (Do people still use iChat?) with the Prime Minister trying to get laughs. The attempt comes up dull and her political presence is off putting regardless of your political standpoint.
These flaws aside the film is what I like to consider a Sunday afternoon movie. It is nowhere near a great film. Maybe not even a good one. However, when I see it come on TBS on a lazy Sunday I won't be in a rush to turn it off and won't regret spending my two hours watching it. Just as long as I'm not paying for it
C+.

The Doldrums of Winter

Winter starts off with such promise. It's awards season time! Movies are flying in like crazy and my money is going straight to theaters everywhere. Then February hits and all the artsy films have been released over the last 3 months and all the blockbusters are being held off until May. I was seeing as many as five movies a week in a theater in December and early January. Now I can't find one worth my time. That's not to say that nothing has looked interesting, just that nothing has looked worth the $10. I will end up seeing Safe House, Chronicle, Wanderlust, and The Lorax in due time thanks to Redbox or Netflix. Maybe they will even be cheap enough on release day to warrant me making a rare film purchase of something I haven't yet seen.

Normally during these dry spells at the theater there are plenty of movies in disc form that I am excited for. I tend to make the trip to Target or Best Buy every Tuesday to pick up at least one new release. Just not in February where Hugo was the only movie I bought over the 29 day span. Sure a couple of other films I was somewhat interested in came out like Take Shelter and Like Crazy but nothing that was screaming "BUY ME!" Luckily this all comes to an end tomorrow when finally the floodgates start to open with Young Adult, Melancholia, The Descendants, and My Week With Marilyn all deciding to drain my wallet the same day. Maybe I will start having something to write about every night again.

What's most interesting to me is that while I have found very little to see so far this year, the box office is outpacing last year's sales by far. A bunch of movies have opened to far bigger numbers than predicted. The Lorax, for instance, was always going to make money because of the source material combined with being a family film. But $70 million when industry insiders were looking for $50? Where did all of this excess business come from? Most intriguing about this uptick in sales is the potential for The Hunger Games. With the end of Harry Potter and the Twilight Saga and Batman franchises ending later this year Hollywood is looking for the next big franchise. The Hunger Games has a lot going for it: Wildly popular books, extremely passionate fan base, an A-List cast, and hype. Lots of hype. A movie that was already going to make money could gain a considerable bump from the extra film goers this year. I just hope it's a good enough film to break the dry spell I have been feeling for the last two months.

Pacing and debates

There I am, sitting at work, when the person next to me turns and says “I watched Drive last night.” Those five words sparked a giant debate amongst the six people in our area about their opinion on the movie. There were three categories the people fell into: Those who loved it, those who hated it, and those who liked it but preferred Ryan Gosling as a romantic lead. The last group was really just the person who watched it last night and I would have explained that it was a very romantic role for Gosling if not for being busy discussing the movie more with those whom hated the film. The idea of hating such a brilliant film seemed so unnatural until I was told the reason they didn’t like the film was its pace. Suddenly it made sense; people are very rarely a huge fan of anything they think moves along slowly. I proudly claim to not be a part of that group but I also am aware that I am in the vast minority in this discussion.

The best example of this scenario played out with the western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. I talk about this film more than most because of how much it moved me and how well it holds up on a second (and fifteenth) watch. A guy I have known for over ten years and truly respect his opinion when it comes to movies was talking to me about how he considers it a great movie but it isn’t in his top ten because of its snails-are-running-laps-around-you pace. My immediate response, in full Mean Girls fashion, was to say that it was in my top ten BECAUSE of that pace. If a director feels they have a purpose to slow a movie down and fills it appropriately, I am completely down for the ride. In this case Andrew Dominik did just that. The title of the movie tells you exactly what is going to happen and yet it still takes until close to the two hour mark to get to the aforementioned assassination, then has another thirty minutes of film left to deal with the aftermath. The reason this works is a combination of a musical score that is second to none, the landscape and establishing shots are a true piece of artwork, and most importantly, it takes the full run time to feel the weight of the situation and to understand the hypocrisy in our society the film is trying to show us.

Another prime example here would be The American. Chances are if you saw the trailers and the poster of George Clooney running while carrying a gun you were expecting a fast paced action film and instead received an almost silent, slow film with the dialogue only occurring in your own head. This turned a lot of people off from the film. I had the good fortune of renting the movie months later and being told ahead of time that it was slow and awful. Going into the film with lowered expectations made it incredibly easy to enjoy a film that was very poorly received.

On the other side is it possible for a movie to move too quickly? Yes, but normally that depends on the type of film. You can easily make the argument that comedies cannot move too quickly and I would agree with you. Horrible Bosses is a prime example of a film that fits a whole lot of jokes and plot (for a comedy) in an 98 minute run time. However, for a drama that is not always the case. You need time to process the emotion behind what is happening. Friday Night Lights (the film) suffered from this problem in the original cut. The studio felt the pace was too quick and asked Peter Berg to go back and add a scene to let everything sink in for the audience. The result ended up being the perfect scene. The scene in question is when a few of the players are eating burgers at a local hang out. They are not only able to slow the pace but add the weight of expectations by showing the owner giving these high school students free food just for playing football and a dad getting a picture of his newborn with the team’s quarterback while telling him to enjoy this year because after this it’s “nothing but babies and memories.” Take the scene away and who knows if you will ever get the sense of celebrity and pressure this town has put on 16-18 year old kids.

I have had a movie’s pace ruin my opinion on a film too. If you do decide to run at a slow pace there better be a reason for it. If an action film is going to have lengthy monologues the character should be saying something very important and worth the break in pace. Avatar, for example, spends so much time focusing on being imaginative and beautiful it forgot to have a plot. I remember sitting in the theater and spending minutes spacing out multiple times only to realize there is a film going on, and that I missed absolutely nothing. Pacing can work for or against a film, but being slow should not leave you disliking a film.