# The Assassination of Jesse James **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 20, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960 "2008-05-20T12:44:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/1 "2008-05-20T12:44:19Z")
Following close on the heels of _I Am Legend_ for a really poxy film. Watched it last night and yet again my expectations of a decent film were thwarted. Utter and absolute shite ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ea5d25/32.png) [@Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/2 "2008-05-20T12:55:30Z")
What makes you say that? ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/3 "2008-05-20T14:15:26Z")
…By the Coward Robert Ford? I thought it was a great film. Casey Affleck was creepy and disturbed in that film. Brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/4 "2008-05-20T14:29:41Z")
The movie was, in my opinion, one of last year’s very best films; beautiful, lyrical, interesting and haunting. The cinematography, acting and music are all remarkable. It’s very slow and deliberate. People who watch it expecting a typical “Western” will be bored to tears, I think. It’s an art film, more along the lines of Terrence Malick than John Ford. It deserved at least 10 Academy Award nominations, rather than the two it received (Casey Affleck as Best “Supporting” Actor, which is a crock of a category fraud, and Best Cinematography, which it should have won, but I am NOT complaining since **There Will Be Blood** won), ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/5 "2008-05-20T14:45:34Z")
I liked it too. I think it falls into the ‘stark realism’ category of movie making. Kinda like _Unforgiven_, it plods along in gritty detail with none of the normal Hollywood pandering. Plus Casey Affleck was just plain creepy. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/6 "2008-05-20T14:51:42Z")
Yeah, this movie was utterly amazing. Casey Affleck was great. Though, I am not so opposed to his best supporting actor nod because he couldn’t get into the best actor slot, so they wanted to give him something. Brad Pitt made a fascinating Jesse James. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/7 "2008-05-20T14:55:03Z")
[QUOTE=Happy Scrappy Hero Pup] What makes you say that? [/QUOTE] Cos I was hoping for a blood, snot, guts and blood western as they should be. Yes, I’m a Philistine, why do you ask? ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/8 "2008-05-20T14:58:07Z")
I tried really hard to like it but it was…just…too…slow. I fell asleep twice. And I don’t need typical Hollywood action to get interested, but this just seemed retarded, in the sense of slow development. Agonizingly slow. It was beautifully filmed, however. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/9 "2008-05-20T15:53:32Z")
I thought it was absolutely fantastic. I didn’t read any reviews or impressions of it until after I had watched it, and I was actually surprised to find that people think it’s slow or boring. I was enthralled the entire time. Gorgeous movie, I thought, and, as Equipoise says, haunting. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/10 "2008-05-20T17:23:04Z")
**mswas** , you are so right about Brad Pitt. It’s one of his best roles. **Contrapuntal** and **chowder** , have you seen **3:10 to Yuma** (the new version)? That’s another fantastic movie, but with more of what you both were probably looking for, in the traditional Western vein. It also had great acting (Ben Foster is amazing, and Russell Crowe and Christian Bale always deliver), cinematography and music, and a good story that moves along at a nice clip. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/11 "2008-05-20T17:31:04Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] B]Contrapuntal\*\* and **chowder** , have you seen **3:10 to Yuma** (the new version)? That’s another fantastic movie, but with more of what you both were probably looking for, in the traditional Western vein. It also had great acting (Ben Foster is amazing, and Russell Crowe and Christian Bale always deliver), cinematography and music, and a good story that moves along at a nice clip. [/QUOTE] I have seen it, and I really enjoyed it. But I wasn’t looking for anything in particular when I rented _The Assassination_ … I tried to watch it three times and my mind just kept wandering. It failed to engage me. I was bored. I really wanted not to be, but whatcha gonna do? ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/12 "2008-05-20T17:31:16Z")
I loved this movie. I think it captured the time beautifully. It was also a fascinating story as while I was aware of Robert Ford I wasn’t aware of what happened after the shooting. A great movie. My favourite of last year in fact. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/13 "2008-05-20T17:31:26Z")
I turned it off after an hour or so had passed and nothing of interest had happened. Was very glad I had when I checked and saw it was well over 2 hrs long. One of the most boring films I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/14 "2008-05-20T17:35:23Z")
Another fan of this movie. Even though I knew that Ford was going to kill James (if I’d never heard of Jesse James there’s kind of a hint in the title), the bedroom scene when Ford shares the room with the paranoid James was one of the most tense scenes I’ve seen in years. I also love Jesse’s scenes with his kids. If you want to see a movie on the same topic that has more blood and guts and action, get [The Long Riders](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0081071/). It’s probably most famous for the gimmick as casting every real life pair of brothers (Quaids, Keaches, etc.) in Hollywood as Old West Outlaw brothers (the James’, Youngers, etc.) but it’s a very good traditional western movie. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/15 "2008-05-20T17:36:27Z")
I thought it was beautiful and quite well-acted, but about an hour too long. And Casey Aflleck’s mumbling does not work when your sound system’s on the fritz. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/16 "2008-05-20T17:50:22Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] **mswas** , you are so right about Brad Pitt. It’s one of his best roles. **Contrapuntal** and **chowder** , have you seen **3:10 to Yuma** (the new version)? That’s another fantastic movie, but with more of what you both were probably looking for, in the traditional Western vein. It also had great acting (Ben Foster is amazing, and Russell Crowe and Christian Bale always deliver), cinematography and music, and a good story that moves along at a nice clip. [/QUOTE] Yes I’ve seen 3:10 and in fact there is a thread on it that I started. Brilliant film ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/17 "2008-05-20T18:02:20Z")
Staying on the subject of old west outlaws. Why were these guys allowed to go on the rampage for years on end before being shot/captured/lynched or whatever. Realising that the USA is a BIG place and there are loads of places these deperadoes could hide I still am a tad puzzled as to why it took so long. You had marshalls, Pinkerton agents, bounty hunters and so on. While these baddies were free, they were free to kill, rustle and do what baddies do…bad things ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/18 "2008-05-20T19:27:31Z")
I thought TAOJJBTCRF was fantastic, beautiful cinematography, great acting, great atmosphere. When Robert Ford got shot, were we supposed to know who the guy that did it was? Was he one of the James gang? ---
**Author:** ![bubastis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/19 "2008-05-21T01:10:04Z")
I haven’t seen this movie yet; good reviews are one thing, but butt-numbing run times are another. That said, it seems to be the kind of movie that I’d like, and seeing as ho I’ve advance warning on its length and slow pace, I’ll be ready for it. If I just wandered into a mvie theater that was playing it, unawares of how long and slow-paced it was, I’d probably hate it. It sounds like thats what happened with the OP; were you aware of the movie before you saw it? Had you read reviews, or were you aware of the length? Probably if you were that knowledgeable about the movie, you wouldn’t have watched it at all. Which is no reason to dislkie the movie; I recently went to see Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden, which had a huge number of early walkouts, mosty from people that didnt know they were going to see a documentary, and as such hated it instantly. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2008, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960/20 "2008-05-21T03:08:05Z")
I just watched it through Netflix last weekend. I thought it was beautifully filmed. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-assassination-of-jesse-james/449960.md?page=2)