There is greatness in this film.
The opening frames tell us this is something wonderful. The visuals ate pure poetry. Long lingering shots of a place imbued with beauty and threat, a nighttime railway stop where a train robbery is about to take place.
It’s a hell of a story, based on the facts of the final months of the gunslinger and gang leader Jesse James. He traveled with his brothers and a few trusted fellow thieves, knocking off banks, murdering people who got in the way, becoming folk heroes, the way such figures often do.
Brad Pitt plays Jesse and he plays him for all he’s worth, as a psychopathic loner whose paranoia grows with each sideways glance. His gang’s terrified of him, they’ve seen him kill without raising an eyebrow, stone cold and dead eyed.
But they stick by him, on the run, in hiding and pillaging settlers across the American heartland. The somehow believe he has magic powers that prevent them from leaving the gang. Superstition and fear, which James encourages; he toys with them like a cat with a mouse.
Casey Affleck’s career is about to explode with the role of James’ assassin Robert Ford. Affleck’s innocent face betrays a calculating manipulator whose goal is to get Jesse James’ attention, get close to him and make his own history.
Affleck’s so terrific in the role that it’s scary. Who knew this kid had it in him? Images of his face and the thoughts we can see in his eyes dominate the film with good reason.
Hs character has the biggest secret of all.
Sam Rockwell plays a gang member who is terrified of James and keeps him at arm’s length by agreeing with everything he says and laughing at all his jokes, the sycophant who hides his true loathing.
Shout outs to intense young actor Paul Schneider, who plays the James gang’s resident womanizer with the unfortunate name of Dick Liddil.
The spoken word here is musical with a different sound from the way we speak today, allegedly based on what has known about vocal patterns in that time and that place – 1882 Missouri. The language is oddly familiar, flowery, descriptive, and country hick. Charming, funny and unique.
The film is reminiscent of old masterworks Days of Heaven, Heaven’s Gate, Bonnie and Clyde and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, in its shimmering beauty, and western themes. It’s another example of the glorification of sociopathic serial killers which fascinate us so, who are often associated with western mythology.
They’ll probably say this isn’t a western well, brother, it’s not in the east. It may be a character study but the Wild West informs everything.
The Assassination ... is a film of majesty, shimmering beauty and some of the best ensemble work to come around in years. It’s brainy, pretty, fact-based and evocative and it’s been haunting me for days.
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