Film III
III: Andrew Dominik, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
I read the book this is based on a couple of weeks ago and I wasn't massively impressed. This didn't fill me with great optimism for the film - which I was determined to see despite being let down by two people who'd wanted to see it with me. The film is, indeed, long. Stately. Dominik loves his establishing shots of rugged and snowy terrain - his thoughtful men against wheat fields. I was reminded of Tarkovsky, and his Nostalgia, although I wondered whether it had been channelled through Gladiator. Given that Didley Ridley is a producer, that may be likely. Terence Malick is also there - the longeurs of The Thin Red Line.
It is the last days of Jesse James (a Brad Pitt going to seed) and hero-worshipper Robert Ford (Casey Affleck, Ben's brother, and never better) wants to join his gang as he identifies so closely with the bandit. Frank James (Sam Shepherd) is less keen to have him on board, but the Ford brothers take part in the final train robbery. Post-robbery the gang splits, and some members start showing up dead. (As I recall from the book, the rest of the gang are cut out of the profits of the raid, which wasan't clear here.) Ford seems to realsie his hero has clay feet, and decides to ask for an award for the killing of James - and kill him he must, lest Jesse kill him first.
What suddenly struck me is that Jesse is looking for Robert to betray him, and this was before the film links the week preceeding Easter to the death of James on April 3. Jesse/Jesus and Robert/Judas? Well, maybe don't push the parallels too far; here Judas wanders the land almost disconsolatedly, repeforming his murder rather than hanging himself, but I think we're in the same branch of storyland. The film (and book) is about myth-making - there were already dime novels about James in his life time, already folk songs, and Ford was a man for whom fandom was more than a goddamn hobby. The book is even more clinical than the film in its dissections of fame - there was some business about gravestones which was left out which was a shame - but we see the increasing polished image of James as technology (bicycles, trains, photography) develops.
But for me the book failed for lacked of action - there is just the one raid - and yet curious its internality, its waiting, worked better on film. There was a sense of a menace about to explode (like the World War Two action in The Thin Red Line. Dominik hasn't directed since Chopper - another study of an unlikely and criminal celebrity - but he's coaxed some great low key performances out of his cast, few of who I could put names to despite knowing them from the cast list - and a number of whom, inclduign Affleck, have worked with Gus Van Sant in contemporary versions of the social class depicted here.
I still figure the film could have shaved half an hour off - or needed to built up the dime novel reputation at the start to balance it out - but definitely, after much struggle to see, the new film of the year.
Trailers include Sweeney Todd (ooh Alan Rickman's in it - and they appear to be pretending it isn't a musical) and Into the Wild, as well as Eastern Promises and The Kite Runner. I hope to catch all these.
Totals: 3 [Cinema: 1; DVD: 2; TV: 0]
I read the book this is based on a couple of weeks ago and I wasn't massively impressed. This didn't fill me with great optimism for the film - which I was determined to see despite being let down by two people who'd wanted to see it with me. The film is, indeed, long. Stately. Dominik loves his establishing shots of rugged and snowy terrain - his thoughtful men against wheat fields. I was reminded of Tarkovsky, and his Nostalgia, although I wondered whether it had been channelled through Gladiator. Given that Didley Ridley is a producer, that may be likely. Terence Malick is also there - the longeurs of The Thin Red Line.
It is the last days of Jesse James (a Brad Pitt going to seed) and hero-worshipper Robert Ford (Casey Affleck, Ben's brother, and never better) wants to join his gang as he identifies so closely with the bandit. Frank James (Sam Shepherd) is less keen to have him on board, but the Ford brothers take part in the final train robbery. Post-robbery the gang splits, and some members start showing up dead. (As I recall from the book, the rest of the gang are cut out of the profits of the raid, which wasan't clear here.) Ford seems to realsie his hero has clay feet, and decides to ask for an award for the killing of James - and kill him he must, lest Jesse kill him first.
What suddenly struck me is that Jesse is looking for Robert to betray him, and this was before the film links the week preceeding Easter to the death of James on April 3. Jesse/Jesus and Robert/Judas? Well, maybe don't push the parallels too far; here Judas wanders the land almost disconsolatedly, repeforming his murder rather than hanging himself, but I think we're in the same branch of storyland. The film (and book) is about myth-making - there were already dime novels about James in his life time, already folk songs, and Ford was a man for whom fandom was more than a goddamn hobby. The book is even more clinical than the film in its dissections of fame - there was some business about gravestones which was left out which was a shame - but we see the increasing polished image of James as technology (bicycles, trains, photography) develops.
But for me the book failed for lacked of action - there is just the one raid - and yet curious its internality, its waiting, worked better on film. There was a sense of a menace about to explode (like the World War Two action in The Thin Red Line. Dominik hasn't directed since Chopper - another study of an unlikely and criminal celebrity - but he's coaxed some great low key performances out of his cast, few of who I could put names to despite knowing them from the cast list - and a number of whom, inclduign Affleck, have worked with Gus Van Sant in contemporary versions of the social class depicted here.
I still figure the film could have shaved half an hour off - or needed to built up the dime novel reputation at the start to balance it out - but definitely, after much struggle to see, the new film of the year.
Trailers include Sweeney Todd (ooh Alan Rickman's in it - and they appear to be pretending it isn't a musical) and Into the Wild, as well as Eastern Promises and The Kite Runner. I hope to catch all these.
Totals: 3 [Cinema: 1; DVD: 2; TV: 0]