The introduction to the movie sets the tone
The film was made by Andrew Dominik. He made Chopper and Killing Them Softly. Chopper came before this one and is infamous for Eric Bana playing a lunatic criminal who's charming and effusive and dangerous as fuck. It's not the best film, but you can't stop watching. Killing Them Softly also stars Brad Pitt and has Richard Jenkins as the go-between the regional mafia and Brad Pitt. Pitt plays a cop and part-time hitman who takes on a job that someone else fucked up. It's a slow burn of a movie and proves, which I think everyone realizes without realizing, that Brad is good at what he does but better when he says less. Less is more.
Anyways, watching this movie, everyone else carries the baton a few paces because it is and isn't about Jesse James. He's past the prime of his youth. His gang, outside of his brother, is ready to take him down for a large reward, and a young fan who can't stop obsessing over him, Robert Ford, has attached himself to the man. You can feel what the movie says by some of its dialogue. At one point, Jesse says to Robert,
"I haven't been acting correctly. I can't hardly recognize myself sometimes when I'm greased. I go on journeys out of my body and look at my red hands and my mean face and I wonder about that man who's gone so wrong. I've been becoming a problem to myself."
I've probably seen this movie 5 times and I can tell you this: The people who are loyal to Jesse don't need to say it. Everyone talks themselves into holes where one doubts the words out of their mouth or the meaning of those words. I'll tell you this, and you won't notice it until the end of the movie: I'm pretty sure Mary Louise Parker has one line throughout the whole film:
"Bob, have you done this?"
Truths turn to lies as the sun sets on scenes. You can tell everything is foreboding. It's more paint by suspicion, not numbers. If everyone gets what they deserve, I wonder how safe one can feel in this world. That's the big thing is that it takes a big Hollywood Western approach, but it's more self-aware of what it's doing, like a Brecht play. You'll feel like you're supposed to reflect on what happens and how it affects *you*, and not identify with the characters. It's not easy. the dialogue can be funny and feel very of the time and I feel like it suffered from being around the same time as Deadwood, which was a lot more audience-friendly.
Spoiler: The (actual) Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
So you know, that's the eponymous scene. It's not a small movie. It's big and ambitious and is really beautiful. There's a reason they don't make movies like this. It's slow and hypnotizing. At 2 hours and 40 minutes, it doesn't try and up the pace, but it won't transition too smoothly and may make one complacent waiting for action. That's not to say this is as over-reaching as a Terrence Malick movie, it just knows how to let a scene lay still. I love movies like this, but I think it's because I like when things breathe.
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