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

Release date: 2007-10-19
Country: USA|Canada|UK
Language: English|Danish
Director: Andrew Dominik
Production Co: Warner Bros., Jesse Films Inc., Scott Free Productions
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama, History, Western
Rating: 7.5/10
Length: 2h 40min

Storyline

Taking place in the American Northwest in the early 1880s, the film dramatizes the last seven months in the life of famed outlaw Jesse James, beginning with the Blue Cut train robbery of 1881 and culminating in his assassination at the hands of Robert Ford the following April. In the time between these two fateful events, the young and jealous Ford befriends the increasingly mistrustful outlaw, even as he plots his demise.

Plot Keywords

based on a novel, betrayal, 19th century, assassination, friendship, father daughter relationship, family relationships, drunkenness, cold blooded killer, brother sister relationship, frozen lake, older man younger woman relationship, mother son relationship, mother daughter relationship, knife held to throat, husband wife relationship, gun held to head, father son relationship, shot in the foot, shot in the back

Short Review

Pitt, toying with his death-wish like some private joke, is eminently watchable in a role with little developmental arc; while Affleck, as his unwitting nemesis, takes his own mysterious integrity right to the grave.