The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: A+

While the infamous and unpredictable outlaw (Brad Pitt) plans his next big heist, he launches preemptive strikes against those seeking to collect the reward money on his head. However, the most deadly threat to James may come from those closest to him. Based on the book by Ron Hansen.


Have you ever had a hero? someone you looked up to your whole life, a person you held in the highest regard, you heard stories of them through the years complementing and creating a larger then life persona that you couldn't help but to admire. You dreamt about meeting and impressing them through your own prowess and ambition, only to come to the realization that the hero you grew up trying to mimic was a cruel and callous, possibly self obsessed egocentric? The realization of this shocking experience forces you to reevaluate your priorities, your personality, your soul being. You become the opposite of everything you aspired to become in your youth, what would you do if met with your fallen role model after this change?

Like Robert Ford, I grew up on the amazing tales of Jesse James. The formidable, daring, and brave robber who stole from the rich Yankees and gave to the poor and suffering confederates who lost so much in the aftermath of our Civil War. As a child I would hear stories of his courageous bank robberies, and smooth escapes. I traveled to his famed cave where Jesse and his gang would divide their spoils, he was to me a "Southern Hero"!

I have watched countless movies glorifying Jesse James, and degrading "The Coward Robert Ford" (or so he is called), the most honest depiction of Jesse James and Robert Ford however (in my opinion) is this movie. The accuracy and honesty of this movie is crushing and liberating to me, how the director Andrew Dominik cuts through the fairytale and myth of one of Americas most notorious thieves/glorified hero's to expose the true man is refreshing and truthful, more to his credit is how he creates true sympathy and apathy for Jesse's assassin Robert ford, branded as a coward for his actions only after being glorified by an adoring public.

I won't reveal anything else about this movie that the title doesn't already expose to you, I found this movie to be more about self preservation then almost anything else. You decide who deserves to be more vilified? Brad pitt gives the performance of his life, he is haunting and intimadating, but Casey affleck (Gone Baby, Gone) is an actor on his way to becoming one of the greats. This is movie shunned by the academy, but not by me, and hopefully not by you either.

Rated "R" for violence

See Also: 3:10 to Yuma, Bobby, and JFK