The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, like its title, is long: 2 hours and 40 minutes long. And these aren’t Lord of the Rings ork-slashing minutes. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is slow. Very slow. Indeed, it makes The Thin Red Line look like an action thriller. Aside from a brief opening train robbery and the titular assassination, there is little more than quiet conversation throughout the whole of it. I’ll confess that there were a few lingering moments where I wanted to yell out to the screen, “Just cut to the next scene already!”

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is like watching a poker game. A 2 hour and 40 minute poker game. To the casual viewer, nothing could be more boring. But this isn’t just any game. This is a game among masters. You can see it – and you can feel it – in their eyes, in their gestures, in the intonations of their voice. And behind these subtleties is a furious, frightening intensity. Always remember, no matter how good a liar you think you are, you CANNOT lie to Jesse James.

The film could never have gotten away with its approach if it hadn’t been for phenomenal performances from Brad Pitt, Sam Rockwell and Casey Affleck – m ost of all Affleck, who ought win the Oscar for best actor this year. Who would have known Ben’s Ocean’s 11 kid brother had it in him?

I should say that I’m not normally a fan of the long, boring Oscar-bait genre, but this one is different. I’ve read a number of criticisms of the film as a pretty, but ultimately shallow, art-film – deserving of awards in cinematography and acting, but not much else. I think there’s much these folks are missing.

The characters and relationship between Jesse James (Pitt) and Robert Ford (Affleck) in this film are as deserving of study as Hamlet and Laertes (or better yet, Caesar and Brutus.) It seems incredible at the start, but eventually we actually come to understand why young Bob Ford would betray the one he was the most devoted to. And I can’t think of a play, book or movie anywhere that has done a better job of twisting our minds with the hero/villain dichotomy. Robert Ford is the film’s hero, of course, why he’s the one who shot the great villain Jesse James! But as its title suggests, the film pities Ford. It is sympathetically disdainful of him, not because of what he did, but why he did it. (If we are to see Ford with contempt, what does it mean that Jesse James is his opposing foil?) By the time we reach the all-too-soon finale, we are left in contemplation of just what it means to be a legend anyway. After all, Ford will never be the dime novel hero that Jesse James will always be.

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