THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
Sky Cinema 2 at 11.30pm. With Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck and Sam Sheppard. Directed by Arthur Dominick. US production 2007. Duration: 2 hours and 40 minutes
THE PLOT
The killing of Jesse James, the West’s most famous bandit, has been told by the cinema a thousand times, but almost never by the killer, Bob Ford, “that dirty little coward” according to a famous ballad “who ate at Jesse’s table, slept in Jesse’s bed, killed poor Jesse.” Bob Ford is told as a psychopath who, in love with the legend of the outlaw James, wanted at all costs to join his gang, model his life on him, kill him to somehow get out of a split personality.
WHY SEE IT
Because Dominik has found a way to tell the old story in an original and often enthralling way. With very long sequences (never has Missouri, the place of the James bandit deeds, been rendered so magically on the screen). Brad Pitt is surprisingly comfortable portraying a living (and later killed) legend of the West.
