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Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Brand: PITT,BRAD EAN: 0012569763739 Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC Item Dimensions: Label: Warner Home Video Languages: Manufacturer: Warner Home Video MPN: 012569763739 Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Warner Home Video Region Code: 1 Release Date: February 05, 2008 Running Time: 160 minutes Studio: Warner Home Video Theatrical Release Date: 2007 Editorial Review: Product Description: No Description Available. Genre: Westerns Rating: R Release Date: 5-FEB-2008 Media Type: DVD Amazon.com: Of all the movies made about or glancingly involving the 19th-century outlaw Jesse Woodson James, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is the most reflective, most ambitious, most intricately fascinating, and indisputably most beautiful. Based on the novel of the same name by Ron Hansen, it picks up James late in his career, a few hours before his final train robbery, then covers the slow catastrophe of the gang's breakup over the next seven months even as the boss himself settles into an approximation of genteel retirement. But in another sense all of the movie is later than that. The very title assumes the audience's familiarity with James as a figure out of history and legend, and our awareness that he was--will be--murdered in his parlor one quiet afternoon by a backshooting crony. The film--only the second to be made by New Zealand-born writer-director Andrew Dominik--reminds us that Dominik's debut film, Chopper (2000), was the cunningly off-kilter portrait of another real-life criminal psychopath who became a kind of rock star to his society. The Jesse James of this telling is no Robin Hood robbing the rich to give to the poor, and that train robbery we witness is punctuated by acts of gratuitous brutality, not gallantry. Nineteen-year-old Bob Ford (Casey Affleck) seeks to join the James gang out of hero worship stoked by the dime novels he secretes under his bed, but his glam hero (Brad Pitt) is a monster who takes private glee in infecting his accomplices with his own paranoia, then murdering them for it. In the careful orchestration of James's final moments, there's even a hint that he takes satisfaction in his own demise. Affleck and Pitt (who co-produced with Ridley Scott, among others) are mesmerizing in the title roles, but the movie is enriched by an exceptional supporting cast: Sam Shepard as Jesse's older, more stable brother Frank; Sam Rockwell as Bob Ford's own brother Charlie, whose post-assassination descent into madness is astonishing to behold; Paul Schneider, Garret Dillahunt, and Jeremy Renner as three variously doomed gang members; and Mary-Louise Parker, who as Jesse's wife Zee has few lines yet manages with looks and body language to invoke a wellnigh-novelistic backstory for herself. There are also electrifying cameos by James Carville, doing solid actorly work as the governor of Missouri; Ted Levine, as a lawman of antic spirit; and Nick Cave, composer of the film's score (with Warren Ellis) and screenwriter of the Aussie "Western" The Proposition, suddenly towering over a late scene to perform the folk song that set the terms for the book and movie's title. Still, the real costar is Roger Deakins, probably the finest cinematographer at work today. The landscapes of the movie (mostly in Alberta and Manitoba) will linger in the memory as long as the distinctive faces, and we seem to feel the sting of its snows on our cheeks. Interior scenes are equally persuasive. Few Westerns have conveyed so tangibly the bleakness and austerity of the spaces people of the frontier called home, and sought in vain to warm with human spirit. --Richard T. Jameson Average Rating:
 Rating:  - A Haunting MasterpieceIf you don't like this movie, then you are probably not a movie lover. However, if you are someone who appreciates all the composite details of a movie such as the richness of the dialog, the choice of cast, the cinematography and the musical score then this film will stay with you for some time. The way this beautiful film moves along makes it a haunting masterpiece. It also reinforces that in our overload of entertainment options such brilliant objects can easily be lost in the mud ... Read More Rating:  - Never gets any betterI am sorry, based on the reviews this should have been a good movie and mayby it is, but four of us sat down to watch it, and it moved so slooooooowwww, after an hour we all looked at each other and decided to see if it got any better, NOT. We didn't even finish it. It might be factual and the most accurate account of the death of Jesse James, but do they have to kill the viewers? I am surprised based on this film that he didn't commit suicide if his life was so boring.... Wish I could ... Read More Rating: - The Best Film of 2007Amidst the bevy of western-themed films that emerged in 2007 (including Seraphim Falls, No Country for Old Men, 3:10 to Yuma (Widescreen Edition), and There Will Be Blood), I found "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" to be the finest film I had seen in many months. "No Country for Old Men", "Seraphim Falls" and "3:10 to Yuma" fall into the broad category of action/suspense films. They rely on fast-paced action and taut suspense to weave a compelling tale. ... Read More Rating: - Don't waste your time or your moneyThis may be one of the worst films I have ever seen. Cannot understand why they bothered to make it. Do not waste your time on this one. Watching ants crawl is probably more exciting than the film. Rating:  - Slow Draw (3.5 stars)"As he stood there, unarmed, with his back to me, it came to me suddenly, 'Now or never is your chance. If you don't get him now he'll get you tonight.' Without further thought or a moment's delay I pulled my revolver and leveled it as I sat. He heard the hammer click as I cocked it with my thumb and started to turn as I pulled the trigger. The ball struck him just behind the ear and he fell like a log, dead." In a letter to Missouri Governor Thomas Crittenden, Robert Ford uses the above ... Read More |
