There are times that exciting stories out of American history just don’t transfer well to the screen, no matter how long you make the title. This film from an artistic point of view is very well done, with all of the open spaces of the West and the authentic costuming you’d think this movie would have been better received by the viewing public. With the main body of work adapted from the acclaimed novel by Ron Hansen, there’s to much drama and not enough action for a western to keep an audiences attention.
After being brought into the James/Younger gang, Robert Ford soon becomes disenchanted and hatches a plan to kill Jesse James in the most cowardly way, shooting him in the back. This film dies a slow and agonizing death, there is way to much set up for events and to much lag time between action sequences. Even with the stellar performances by Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, there isn’t anything that could save this film from the boredom heap. This drama loses a lot through the translation from book to film, the drama is dragged out to the point of tediousness.
I had high hopes for this film with all of the talent that was connected to the project, you’d expect at least a tolerable movie. With this, some-what, authentic telling of the final days of Jesse James there is just not enough drive in the story to keep a modern audiences appetite satisfied. This film shows again that the critics do not always know what the general public likes and wants to see. With a little more effort, a little editing and a little less straight forward translation, this film could have been one of the best new westerns from the beginning of this century.
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