"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"

Andrew Dominik's film is about fame and respect. It's also about one man who has both and about another who doesn't have either, and in his pursuit of both gains infamy instead. It's also about 45 minutes too long.

Dominik was a second unit director on Terrence Malick's "The New World" and his treatment of this story can be described as Malick-Lite. Dominik has the magnificent cinematographer Roger Deakins ponder ever cloud (making them all seem ominous), every horizon, every backdrop. We get shots that are blurry on the edges and sharp in the middle. I know, that's how photographs from that era appeared, but why does Dominik slip in this film school trick only occasionally so that the effect grabs your attention, not what's actually happening on the screen?

The film tells the story of the last six months of Jesse James' life and often during the film I felt it was telling that story in real time.

To its credit, however, the film is not about heroism. Dominik doesn't try to portray James as a misunderstood hero, although there is one unintentionally hilarious shot at the beginning of the film where Brad Pitt as James is posed at the crest of a hill while a narrator describes him and all his various afflictions. One of the things the narrator tells us is that James suffered from a disease that caused him to blink much more than the average man. Throughout this long shot, Pitt never blinks once.

For the most part, however, Dominik and Pitt capture a James who was pathologically cruel and paranoid. He only kills one person in the film, but he shoots that person in the back. In fact, everyone killed in this movie is shot in the back. James comes close to killing someone else, an agent on a train the James Gang robs, while the potential victim lies face down and unconscious. These folks are definitely not heroic.

It's the robbery of this train that sets the film on its course. Jesse and Frank James' old gang, which also included the equally notorious Younger brothers, has long since dispersed and for this caper the James brothers have collected a motly crew of near relatives and hero-worshippers, two of whom, Robert (Casey Affleck) and Charlie Ford (Sam Rockwell), are riding with the Jameses for the first time.

It also turns out to be the last. Jesse and Frank have already decided this is going to be their final holdup, even though it doesn't produce the bounty the brothers were planning on. Immediately after the robbery, Frank (Sam Shepard) leaves for Virginia never to see his brother alive again. Jesse seems to settle in with his wife and two children. All the while his biggest fan, Robert Ford, hovers around, his presence making everyone uncomfortable if not insecure.

There is a lot of this middle section that could have been trimmed, especially scenes in Kentucky where one of the outlaws, Dick Liddil (marvelously brought to life by Paul Schneider) has an affair with the wife of one of James's relatives or scenes on a farm where most of the gang has gathered.

In fact, we see how good this movie could have been during its last half hour when it shows us what happened to the Fords after Robert killed Jesse. It is during these scenes that Affleck really shines and where he earned his Oscar nomination. I do wonder why it's a supporting actor nomination, however--Affleck and Pitt seem to be co-stars in this movie. Shortly after the Oscar nominations were announced 11 years ago, I rewatched "Fargo" with a pair of stopwatches and noted with interest that William H. Macy, nominated in a supporting category, had more screen time than Frances McDormand, who won the Oscar for best actress that year. I wouldn't be surprised if Affleck has more sceen time than Pitt in this film--but, unlike "Fargo," "The Assassination of Jesse James ... " is not a film I would relish sitting through again, with or without a stopwatch.

I'm going to recommend this film, however, but only marginally. If you like Malick's approach and pacing (and I did in "Badlands" and "Days of Heaven" when he wasn't trying to film an epic like he was with "The New World" or "The Thin Red Line"), then this is a DVD you might enjoy. If, however, you're like me and think Dominik should have used someone like Anthony Mann for inspiration, this film could drive you as mad as Jesse James.

Grade: C+