Ryan McNeil
Really?…That’s the best title the filmmakers decided on?…A ten-word monstrosity that people get tired of saying around the time they get to word six? Alrightee then. Fortunately for the film, the title is one of the only bad things about this project helmed by Aussie director Andrew Dominik, and starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck respectively as the two title characters.
The story joins The James Gang as they are plotting their final railroad heist. The handy narrator tells us that the original James gang has actually all been either captured or killed, save for Jesse and his brother Frank. Thus, they are forced to assemble a rag-tag group of thieves for this final score…which is how Robert Ford comes into Jesse’s life. After the job has been done, Ford manages to latch on to Jesse James- his boyhood idol -and get close enough to become a sidekick, guest, nuisance, and ultimately a traitor.
The shooting, of course, comes as no surprise- it’s right there in the title after all -but it takes a good two hours and ten minutes to see how the dastardly deed will be done. Mixed in along the way, we also follow the stories of three other gang members; Wood Hite, Dick Liddl, and Charley Ford (all well played by Jeremy Renner, Paul Schneider, and Sam Rockwell). Their story is really only included to disprove the myth of honour amoung thieves.
Brad Pitt gives Jesse James a quiet ferociousness. His face shows the stress lines of an outlaw who has clearly had enough. He keeps his true emotions bottled up in front of his associates, friends and family, instead masking it with courtesy, humour, and a few bursts of true rage. For the most part, Pitt disappears into the character, except for one instance in my humble opinion. In a scene where he tries to laugh off a very tense situation, his laugh distracted me. It sounded a lot like Tyler Durden laughing. It sounded like Jeffery Goines laughing. It was that boisterous Pitt laugh that you could pick out of the crowd at Dodger Stadium. That one minor transgression aside, Pitt’s performance is admirable, and continues the solid work he put into BABEL.
All due respect to Pitt, bu as far as acting goes, the movie really belongs to Casey Affleck. His portrayal of Robert Ford really has an amazing range. When Ford first shows up, he’s a pipsqueak. A tag-along, wearing shabby clothes, who you could easily envision often saying “Hey guys – wait up!”. Think of the kid in the schoolyard who was always picked last to play basketball – that’s Ford. After the heist, and after the James family has politely asked him to go home, his collection of Jesse James mementos are discovered, and that’s when his manner takes a turn for the worse. Affleck comes out as a young man who has met his idol and been scorned. The stars in his eyes snuff themselves out, and a scowl of angry jealousy takes over. Affleck’s supporting work is complicated and sad, especially the range of emotion he brings in the film’s final thirty minutes – after the notorious assassination has happened.
The film is too long by thirty minutes or so, and while I enjoyed the entire movie, I could sense some restlessness in the theatre. While the subplot regarding Hite, Liddl, and Ford is interesting, it isn’t really necessary in the grand scheme of things…at least not to the extent that it plays. Likewise the score, composed by Matt Dunkley, while lovely feels a tad repetitive (though if I tried scoring a three-hour flick, I’m sure I’d repeat myself too).
One advantage of a long-running film, is when it’s well shot, and ASSASSINATION is amoung the most beautiful looking movies I’ve seen lately. The film is entirely in a muted palette of greys, beiges, whites, and browns. I’m hard pressed to recall the wide plains of Manitoba looking as good as they do in this movie. There are also many shots that feel as though they were filmed through a drinking glass. The edges of the frame are blurry, and a strip down the middle is dead sharp. It gives the wild west a very painted look. The photography is subtle, but gorgeous, and cinematographer Roger Deakins deserves a lot of credit for his work.
We seem to be in the middle of a slight rebirth for the western. 3:10 TO YUMA is already in theatres, and there are traces of the western in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and THERE WILL BE BLOOD, both of which will hit theatres later this year. It’s a bit of a trying genre whose time might have passed- I don’t think kids are going to pretend to be Brad Pitt the way they used to pretend they were Clayton Moore. But ASSASSINATION gets the formula of the classic western spot on, so while I don’t think anyone will mention it in the same breath as THE SEARCHERS anytime soon, I think John Ford would have approved.
One Last Thing: As I reached the cinema door this afternoon, I was greeted by a private security guard. He wasn’t theatre staff – he was contracted by Warner Brothers to work this movie at this theatre. As patrons were entering, he was checking them with a metal detector wand, and asking if they had any cameras or camcorders.
I continue to be baffled how WB keeps treating their customers like criminals, and doesn’t understand the methods and economics of movie piracy. I really hope someone can talk some sense into this studio sometime soon.