The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

It is obvious from the title that this is not a film about what happened, but rather about why it happened.

Written and directed by newcomer Andrew Dominik, The Assassination of Jesse James stars the great Brad Pitt as even more famous bank robber and outlaw James. We start to follow James near the end of his crime career, as things are winding down and his brother Frank is wanting to get out of the game. We meet Robert Ford (Casey Affleck in an Oscar nominated performance) as he is joining the gang for a hit on a train. He has idolized James his whole life, and at 20 Ford still seems as giddy as a school boy around his idol. So how does he get from point A (hero worship) to point B (killing the man he idolized)?

James would fit in well in our culture today. He is a man who makes his own rules, who answers only to himself, and who seems above the law. He is a renegade, a man we all want to be in a way (some more blatantly than others). We all want to be able to do whatever we want all the time. And back then, just as in our time, some people are blown up to mythic proportions. Yet in the West of the 1880's and 1890's it was harder to find out the truth about someone. Their legend would just grow and grow. Robert Ford had a box under his bed of all things James: dime-store novels, newspaper clippings, and even trinkets from his first job with the famous criminal. After getting to know Ford, James began to understand this man's obsession. He asked "Do you want to be like me? Or do you want to be me?" There is a disturbing scene later in the film in which Ford goes through the James house when they are at church. He sips James' water, sniffs James' pillows, pretends to have a stub of a right middle finger like James, and even imagines what James might feel like if Ford were to kill him. In a way he reminds me of myself, or any young man, who idolizes an athelete or a musician (for me those were Ken Griffey Jr. and Eddie Vedder). Ford is still stuck in pre-adolesence, many people are.

As Ford gets to know his hero, he begins to see that this man is human. He begins to realize that the one man he wanted to be is not all he had dreamed of. Or is this just his way of rationalizing the fact that he has decided to protect himself and his family by killing this man? After the assassination we see Ford's reactions, and this explains his psyche in more detail. How does he deal with the fact that he killed the man he worshipped, and in so doing killed some part of himself (hopes/dreams/desires/identity/etc.)? He ends up reenacting the scene on stage day in and day out. He soaks up fame and glory, along with ridicule and threats. He has become nearly as famous as the man he killed (much like Lee Harvey Oswald). He struggles with what he has done. Was he a hero or a coward? Many heckle him, call him names, and are incredibly angry at him for killing such an "important" man, a symbol, a legend, a demi-god. How does he view himself now that this is all over? Did he do it for fame and glory, because it was the right thing to do, or simply because he was scared James would kill him?

The character of Jesse James is interesting, but is almost irrelevant in the film. He is more of an idea than a person. The story centers around Robert Ford, a man with whom we can relate much more easily. He is a man conflicted and confused. He wants to be a real man, a man of courage and strength. He was made to worship something (as are all of us), but doesn't really know what that should be. So he ends up worshipping the most visible symbol of the qualities he admires.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a wonderful western, but a different kind of western. There are no clear good guys, everyone is at least a little bad. The genre has seen a revitalization as of late (this film, 3:10 to Yuma, HBO's Deadwood, etc.) which makes me very happy. Jesse James both honors the genre and takes it in new directions. The cinematography is breathtaking, which is something that always sticks out to me. This film is a long journey well worth the reward, a better understanding of what God meant when he said "Thou shalt have no idols."