Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)


The last months of Jesse James's life, from meeting Robert Ford, a 19-year-old who idolizes Jesse, to the day Ford shoots him. Jesse's a wanted man, living under a pseudonym, carrying out a train robbery, disappearing to Kentucky, and reappearing to plan a bank holdup with Robert and Robert's brother as his team. The rest of the gang is dead, arrested, or gone from Missouri. Whenever Jesse's around, there's tension: he's murderous, quixotic, depressed, and cautious. Ford wants to be somebody and wants the reward. Friendship becomes rivalry and the quest for fame becomes obsession. On April 3, 1882, things come to a head: Jesse is 34, Robert 20. Ford becomes famous, reenacting the shooting on stage, facing down the label "coward," shot dead in 1892.

Director: Andrew Dominik
Writers: Andrew Dominik (screenplay) and Ron Hansen (novel)
Stars: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck and Sam Shepard
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443680/

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