Masterpiece, a term far overused by the cinema going public. I firmly believe that the consumer must learn to understand the criteria for a film to be given such an accolade. I’ll rarely argue with people who say a film is ‘good’ or ‘great’ if they can intelligently back up their comments, however i will argue if the term ‘Masterpiece’ is brought up within conversation. This is something i have found becoming more and more common in recent years as my cinema taste has matured. For example, if I take a quick look over Flixster I’m likely to find reviews of 300 claiming it to be worthy of our favourite term, but with nothing to back up the claims. Now, I enjoyed 300 as much as the next guy, but just because a film is enjoyable doesn’t make it a masterpiece, to be called this a film should do something interesting, it should engage an audience and be able to keep a theatre silenced for 2 hours and 40 minutes. This is something that ‘The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford’ does in the most brilliant of fashions.
Written and directed by Andrew Dominik, who rose to fame in 2000 with Chopper, ‘The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford’ stars Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck. The films plot centers around the demise of Jesse James and his eventual assassination, though is just as much about chronicling the rise to stardom of Robert Ford. The story tells the audience about the dangers of celebrity and how fame only brings pain into the lives of the film’s characters.
Performance are incredible all round, although so far Casey Affleck seems to be taking most of the critical praise. This is the first film I’ve seen monsieur Affleck in, he plays a brilliant role in the film, completely believable as a strange, reclusive psychopath, however I firmly believe that Brad Pitt deserves a huge amount of attention once again for his performance. Pitt is so believable as James in later life, becoming slowly more disenchanted with the world in which he resides, for the majority of the film, until the credits began to roll i forgot that i was watching one of the most unrecognizable faces of the screen for the past two decades.
The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford, features some absolutely stunning scenes, both visually and emotively (screen shots included in links below) in particular the death of James is one of the most passionately treated sections of film that I have had the pleasure of viewing in recent years, it not only portrays the brutality of the bullet for the recipient, but also the pain and suffering incurred by Ford in the followings days, months and years.
If there is one film, coming out of 2007 i have watched, that i can safely and honestly say will be discussed 30 years from now in the same passionate way that I’m discussing it now, that film will be The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford (bearing in mind that i am still yet to see ‘There will be Blood’). If the film is still screening in cinemas where you are I urge you to see it on the largest scale possible, otherwise wait for it on Blu-Ray, trust me, this is one film you do not want to miss.
EDIT :- apologies… in my original write up, I neglected the awesome score in this film, by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. The music makes the film all the more poignant, etc, etc, etc…
