Yesterday many of you read my article asking whether or not 3:10 to Yuma could spur on a comeback of the Western, and in the comments ‘Director866’ mentioned that I forgot to note the upcoming release of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (by the way D866, if you have seen it shoot me a user review to post). As a matter of fact I did, and I didn’t, forget to include Jesse James, but there was a reason for it, and since it was brought up and reviews are coming in as the film debuted at the Venice Film Festival, I figured we may as well start a little conversation.
First off, the reason I didn’t mention it in my Yuma article was because I don’t think it will affect the Western genre at all and that was the subject of that article. Good film or not, it seems like Jesse James is not going to be widely released as it is getting a limited release on September 21st in New York, Los Angeles, Austin and Toronto. It will then slowly be rolled out in other cities and the rate of its expansion I am sure depends on not only critical reviews, but audience reaction and word of mouth. Yuma, on the other hand, is expected to hit 2,500+ theaters this weekend as a major roll out, a bit different than the 10 or so theaters Jesse James will be seeing in its first frame. That said, there is some good word of mouth spreading already for the seemingly little/big film that could.
So far the only negative review for The Assassination of Jesse James, out of the six I will be referencing, comes from the never reliable Kirk Honeycutt at The Hollywood Reporter who uses words such as “self-indulgence”, “meandering”, “unstable” and “imbalance”. For the most part Honeycutt’s review makes me believe he really didn’t understand the picture, or at least didn’t understand the motivation of making it. He says, “It’s never clear to either man whether Robert [Ford] wants to be like Jesse or destroy Jesse or, somehow, become him.” He uses this as a negative, when I actually see this as a major positive.
Since I have not seen the film I have no idea whether one character is painted as a villain and the other a hero, or if this is simply the telling of a tale. However, mystery behind a character’s motivations, especially a character that even Honeycutt alludes to as a well drawn out one such as Robert Ford, I think is very interesting. Nothing is scarier or more intriguing than a character whose motivations can never quite be explained even though we feel we know so much about him/her. Here is how European-Films.net sees the exact same issue:
The ever lurking sense of danger between men carries an erotic charge that eventually spills over into the Talented Mr. Ripley school of attraction in which a hero (Greenleaf, or in this case James) is so admired by a young hanger-on (Ripley, Ford) that it is never clear whether he is in love with his hero or just in love with the idea of becoming this hero himself. (Like in Minghella’s take on Ripley, this crucial information comes to the fore in a scene involving the hero in a bathtub.)
Make of it what you will, but I am intrigued by this.
Just as every review, Honeycutt does admit that Casey Affleck turns in a great performance. On a side note, PopSyndicate‘s reviewer does say that while “Affleck brings Ford to life commendably… there are times when he doesn’t seem fully connected to the part.”
Todd McCarthy at Variety (another reviewer that is frequently not to be trusted) says, “Affleck makes an indelible impression as the insecure, physically unprepossessing weakling who endures no end of humiliation, and eventually embodies the sort of nobody who has bloodied American history from time to time to insure his own immortality.”
Finally, ScreenDaily‘s reviewer echoes the sentiments on Brad Pitt‘s performance as Jesse James virtually the same as all the others compared to Affleck, “Pitt is good, Affleck revelatory, suggesting depths of yearning behind Ford’s impotent, craven exterior and growing in strength and confidence as James moves in the opposite direction, from genial power to haunted desperation.”
Outside of Honeycutt’s unstable meanderings of which he seems to flip-flop more than a Presidential candidate, there seems to be a consensus on the acting as well as the film itself. European-Films.net refers to the picture as a “captivating film that envelops the viewer for 155 minutes in a version of 1880s USA that recalls the serials and novels from the same era.” Yup, 155 minutes, and as the newly launched official site would lead us to believe they also say there “is a clear influence of director Terence Malick (The Thin Red Line, The New World) at work here.”
The Malick influence doesn’t surprise me one bit, I saw this coming after the first still (pictured above) was released of Pitt as Jesse James standing tall amidst a golden field. Just bouncing around the official site for a couple of minutes you almost feel like you are experiencing a Malick film; to me, this is a good thing. Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood-Elsewhere says, “As I watched Jesse James the closest atmospheric analogies among westerns I could think of were Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven and Philip Borsos’ The Grey Fox.” Stunning visuals seemed to be something all six reviews agreed upon.
In an attempt not to accentuate all of the positives, there is one other noticeable negative mentioned among the five positive reviews and it comes from PopSyndicate who says:
The only real flaw of the film comes near the end. In the climactic scene, as Ford is about to shoot James in the back… the script and direction make it seem as if Jesse anticipates, and even encourages, the shooting. Whether this was done to cast James more clearly in the Christ role – as willing victim – and Ford as his Judas – who merely did what he had to do – or whether it was a choice made simply to soften the violent and vicious action of a cowardly man who ultimately betrayed his friend, is unclear, but it rings false… and it seems like a PC cheat to suggest otherwise. The fact is, by all accounts, Howard was a sniveling little coward who did what he did for his own benefit. Why not present the facts fairly?
I can’t combat this comment in the slightest since I am not a Jesse James historian. It does sound like something, however, that will be up to a viewer’s interpretation. Another way to look at it is to compare it once again to Honeycutt’s question of Ford’s motivations. Is it possible this is just another critic’s take on the vagaries of Affleck’s performance of Ford? Even ScreenDaily, when referring to the assassination scene wonders if Ford is “the fan who turns nasty – or the conflicted Judas figure compelled to shop the hero he worships.” I can’t wait to find out for myself and see if I have the same questions. Lord knows it at least makes for good conversation.
Finally, there are a couple of good things said about the score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, who both put in work on last year’s great western The Proposition (iTunes link).
For the most part The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford sounds like a film vying for a few Oscar bids, while 3:10 to Yuma would be the Western to reinvigorate a genre that has stumbled since the late ’70s into virtual non-existence aside from a few hits here and there.
Jesse James (more here) hits theaters on September 21 in limited release, and you can check out 3:10 to Yuma (more here) this weekend as it goes wide September 7th.
