The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford [Blu-ray]
by Andrew Dominik
![The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford [Blu-ray]](/images/The-Assassination-of-Jesse-James-by-the-Coward-Robert-Ford-Blu-ray-B0010V60XE-L.jpg)
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Blu-ray details
Actor: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Molly Parker, Sam ShepardDirector: Andrew Dominik
Brand: Warner Brothers
Blu-ray: Region Code 0
Audio: French (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.40:1
Running Time: 160 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: 2008-02-05
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: 82972
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: Blu-ray
- AC-3; Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; Dubbed; Subtitled; Widescreen
Blu-ray Reviews of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford [Blu-ray]
Blu-ray Review: A Most Beautiful Western Resplendent in Blu-ray
Summary: 5 Stars
The first time I saw this on DVD, I was transfixed by the sheer majesty of it, thinking how THIS would be one to savor on Blu-ray. For starters, the story is told with such a clear voice, it establishes a proximity to the events that feels almost like a documentary. The narrative languors in the superb cinematography by Roger Deakins, who turned the landscapes into portraiture, suffusing every scene in a Wyeth-like beauty. It's a perfect backdrop for contemplating the American myth, stripping the national character down to its harshest tones, requiring everything to the horizon as the stage to fully reveal it. Left with a rustic palette, a flavor of early photography is alluded to in some shots with a very shallow depth of field, so that the edges are blurry. The costumes were practically monochromatic, completing the film's simple authenticity, reminding me of the daguerreotypes of flinty-eyed anonymous ancestors etched by their hardscrabble ways. I think it's one of the most beautiful westerns I've ever seen. And not just in the way it looked, but in the way the story unfolds through an economy of dialogue and action, the actors subsuming themselves to the portrait-like tone of the film. Some people complained it moved too slowly, but, to me, it was a rich character study, and as such, there was always something happening, not necessarily as pivotal chronological events, but as tense exchanges between personalities. The pacing isn't slow as much as it is gradual and deliberate. This isn't just cinema; it's a meditation on American character, on myth and celebrity. It's hypnotic.
As for the acting, Brad Pitt had just the right amount of star power to inhabit the personality of the charismatic and mercurial Jesse James. In response, Casey Affleck had a way of averting his eyes that was brilliant in its simplicity in depicting Robert Ford's obsequious sidling-up to Jesse while assessing every word for signs of acceptance. But it wasn't just these two. Sam Rockwell turned in an excellent low-keyed performance as Robert's cautious, more experienced older brother Charley, who as an affable bumpkin always feared Jesse's penetrating gaze as if the gang leader might be omniscient. The rest of the cast was filled with top-notch character actors, some famous, some not so famous, but forming an ensemble of solid players. And of course, all of this fine photography and acting was arranged into perfect pace by director Andrew Dominik. I can't even imagine how he thought it up. This is a film so close to perfect, it's unquestionably a modern masterpiece. I'm frustrated that this movie wasn't greeted with more fanfare.
Of course I was excited about the Blu-ray, and it was gorgeous, one I'll watch again and again. The disappointment was the extra features. The only bonus on the disc was a single 30-minute documentary about the real Jesse James. It was certainly interesting enough, but I wanted to know more about the aesthetics of the creative minds behind this masterpiece. A few words about the film itself from director Dominik would have been appreciated, along with some comments about the cinematography, which was a key feature to this enriching experience. In the aforementioned documentary you can see that scenes were shot for the film that didn't make it to the final cut. What happened there? I'd like to know more about those decisions, as it's a fact that something longer had been planned. One of the film festivals screened a four-hour version (and Brad Pitt won the award for Best Actor). I've read somewhere that there was a behind-the-scenes tug-of-war, with Pitt and the director on one side, the studio on the other. The studio won with the shorter cut. I think it was a mistake. However, that leaves hope there's a Director's Cut in the future, that truer vision, in a special edition with loads of extras, at which point all will be revealed. It's been done for lesser films.
For now, there's not even a director commentary.
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Description of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford [Blu-ray]
Everyone in 1880s America knows Jesse James. He?s the nation?s most notorious criminal hunted by the law in 10 states. He?s also the land?s greatest hero lauded as a Robin Hood by the public. Robert Ford? No one knows him. Not yet. But the ambitious 19-year-old aims to change that. He?ll befriend Jesse ride with his gang. And if that doesn?t bring Ford fame he?ll find a deadlier way. Friendship becomes rivalry and the quest for fame becomes obsession in this virile epic produced in part by Ridley Scott and featuring gripping portrayals by Brad Pitt (winner of the Venice Film Festival Best Actor Award) as Jesse and Casey Affleck as the youth drawn closer to his goal?and farther from his own humanity.Running Time: 160 min.Format: BLU-RAY DISC Genre: WESTERN/COWBOYS UPC: 012569829725 Manufacturer No: 82972Of all the movies made about or glancingly involving the 19th-century outlaw Jesse Woodson James, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is the most reflective, most ambitious, most intricately fascinating, and indisputably most beautiful. Based on the novel of the same name by Ron Hansen, it picks up James late in his career, a few hours before his final train robbery, then covers the slow catastrophe of the gang's breakup over the next seven months even as the boss himself settles into an approximation of genteel retirement. But in another sense all of the movie is later than that. The very title assumes the audience's familiarity with James as a figure out of history and legend, and our awareness that he was--will be--murdered in his parlor one quiet afternoon by a backshooting crony.
The film--only the second to be made by New Zealand?born writer-director Andrew Dominik--reminds us that Dominik's debut film, Chopper (2000), was the cunningly off-kilter portrait of another real-life criminal psychopath who became a kind of rock star to his society. The Jesse James of this telling is no Robin Hood robbing the rich to give to the poor, and that train robbery we witness is punctuated by acts of gratuitous brutality, not gallantry. Nineteen-year-old Bob Ford (Casey Affleck) seeks to join the James gang out of hero worship stoked by the dime novels he secretes under his bed, but his glam hero (Brad Pitt) is a monster who takes private glee in infecting his accomplices with his own paranoia, then murdering them for it. In the careful orchestration of James's final moments, there's even a hint that he takes satisfaction in his own demise.
Affleck and Pitt (who co-produced with Ridley Scott, among others) are mesmerizing in the title roles, but the movie is enriched by an exceptional supporting cast: Sam Shepard as Jesse's older, more stable brother Frank; Sam Rockwell as Bob Ford's own brother Charlie, whose post-assassination descent into madness is astonishing to behold; Paul Schneider, Garret Dillahunt, and Jeremy Renner as three variously doomed gang members; and Mary-Louise Parker, who as Jesse's wife Zee has few lines yet manages with looks and body language to invoke a wellnigh-novelistic backstory for herself. There are also electrifying cameos by James Carville, doing solid actorly work as the governor of Missouri; Ted Levine, as a lawman of antic spirit; and Nick Cave, composer of the film's score (with Warren Ellis) and screenwriter of the Aussie "Western" The Proposition, suddenly towering over a late scene to perform the folk song that set the terms for the book and movie's title.
Still, the real costar is Roger Deakins, probably the finest cinematographer at work today. The landscapes of the movie (mostly in Alberta and Manitoba) will linger in the memory as long as the distinctive faces, and we seem to feel the sting of its snows on our cheeks. Interior scenes are equally persuasive. Few Westerns have conveyed so tangibly the bleakness and austerity of the spaces people of the frontier called home, and sought in vain to warm with human spirit. --Richard T. Jameson
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