The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Directed by Andrew Dominik

Is this really the best title that Dominik could come up with? I have a big problem with it on many levels. First, let’s talk about the obvious: It doesn’t leave a lot of room for suspense. We know before we even watch that Jesse James (Brad Pitt) will die before the film is over. You might say that the James isn’t who the movie is really about. To which I would ask: Why include it in the title?

The second issue I have with this unnecessarily long title is the fact that Ford is labeled a coward. It is not that I have an issue with Ford (Casey Affleck) being labeled a coward; I think he was. But by announcing it in the title of the film, Dominik declares that Ford will be painted a certain way. He deprives audiences the ability to watch and judge for themselves. By telling us that James is going to be killed and that the man who does it is a coward, Dominik gives us a pass to mindlessly watch the film, while enjoying the outdoor scenes and pretty costumes.

Now that I’ve railed against the stupid title, let’s talk about the film itself. Dominik must be a fan of the great John Ford, because he copies several shot techniques from Ford’s 1956 film ‘The Searchers’. Two shots in particular stand out to me. Early in The Searchers, a woman walks out of a farm house door. The camera is placed behind her, so that as she opens the door and walks out, the unfolding scene is framed by the door. Ford became famous for using this shot in many of his films, and Dominik uses it several times in ‘Jesse James’.

At one point in the movie James and Charley Ford (Sam Rockwell) walk across the ice of a frozen lake. Both are on foot and James walks ahead while Ford leads the horses. But before the two are seen, we see the ice, with rows of pine trees in the background. The two men enter from the right side of the screen, walking across while the camera freezes. This introduction is not unlike another winter scene from ‘The Searchers’ where Ethan Edwards (The Duke, John Wayne) and Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter) move from right to left while the camera stays put. I applaud Dominik for using some of the classic Fordian film techniques. I am just glad that Ford used ‘The Searchers’ as a title instead of ‘Two Brave Men Who Rescue a Girl from a Bunch of Indians’.

The character of Robert Ford is one that many people may identify with. I don’t mean the cowardice, but the metamorphosis from an admirer of James to one who loathes him. At the beginning of the film Ford idolizes James, and begs and pleads to become a member of the James gang. As Ford gets close to Jesse, the polish that Ford has put on James starts to wear off. He sees James’ shortcomings, and begins to realize that his hero is human, despite all of the superhuman things he’s read about Jesse. To make matters worse, James frequently mocks Ford, both for being a foolish follower and for just being plain slow. Ford goes from wanting to be Jesse James to wanting to be bigger and better than James. Think about that for a minute. Have you ever done that? Have you ever known someone who has been larger than life to you, only to find that they are human, and you feel that to be successful you need to be even larger?

Casey Affleck was certainly good in this film. He’s actually a better actor than his brother. He even carried that turd of an over rated ‘Gone Baby Gone’. As usual Brad Pitt was outstanding, though it was not his most memorable performance (See ‘Snatch’). Overall this film earned a 7 of 10.

Next up: The Bourne Trilogy

No Country for Old Men

Directed by Ethan and Joel Coen

Tomorrow night when the Oscars are handed out I will be deeply disappointed if this film wins Best Picture. It is not that I didn’t like the film; I really enjoyed it. But I don’t think that it was the best picture in the past year. This film cannot compete with There Will Be Blood. Despite being a really intense, well acted film, I wouldn’t even rate it the best of the Coen brothers’ output. If I was to sit down to satisfy a craving for a Coen film, I would watch Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou, Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy and The Big Lebowski in that order before I would watch No Country. Okay, maybe not Lebowski, but you get the point.

Much has been said about the performance of Javier Bardem, and rightly so. He delivers one of the best performances as a villain that I have seen in quite some time. He’s the kind of bad guy you really fear. He is ruthless and vicious, yet takes great care to avoid getting the blood of his victims on his boots. Bardem appears to be larger than life, not just figuratively but literally. Because of the camera angles and zooms he appears to be a very large and intimidating man.

Because of the attention given to Bardem’s acting, the presentation of Josh Brolin has been largely overlooked. When I first saw previews of the film I thought that Brolin was Kurt Russell. It’s hard to believe that he ever played Brand Walsh in The Goonies. His mien is the sort of dry manner that is seen in so many Coen brothers films. At times he reminded me of Nicholas Cage in Raising Arizona. At other times I could see Tim Robbins from Hudsucker.

The Coens always find a way to subtly link their films together and this was no exception. Brolin’s character Llewelyn Moss and his wife live in a trailer in Texas. The floor plan of the trailer is exactly the same as the one from Raising Arizona. It could be the same one. Who knows? In one seen from No Country Tommy Lee Jones, who plays a local sheriff, is looking for Moss, and searches through the trailer. Earlier in the film when Bardem had broken into the trailer he had used a high pressure tank to blast the dead bolt out of the door. As Jones bends down to examine the mark that the dead bolt left on the wall, I can’t help but think of the scene in Arizona when Randall ‘Tex’ Cobb is searching the trailer and bends down to examine the word ‘FART’ scrawled on the wall.

One thing that this film really has to its credit is the dialogue. As usual the Coens did a great job with the witty and disturbing interactions between characters. There is more that I want to say about a careful message within the film, but I cannot do so without ruining the film for anyone who has not seen it. If you see it, come ask me later about the significance of the phrase “Beer leads to more beer.”

Despite how negative I might sound about this film, I still really enjoyed it. I would still give it a 7.5 out of 10.


Next Up: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, directed by Andrew Dominik

There Will be Blood Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Every so often an actor turns in a performance that makes audiences think “No one else could have pulled that off.” I’m talking about performances that steal the show, that make the show. Performances like this include Osron Welles in Citizen Kane, Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, Alec Guiness in Bridge Over the River Kwai, Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Kevin Spacey from American Beauty. Add a new performer to this list: Daniel Day Lewis.

The Last of the Mohicans aside, everything Lewis has touched has been great, including such films as My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father and The Boxer. But his portrayal of Daniel Plainview in ‘Blood’ cements him as one of the greatest of all time. This is one film that I don’t want to spoil for anyone, so I’ll be careful. But his last line in the film, where he says ‘I’m finished.’ is one that will be quoted for years to come.

Much of the power of the performance comes from the fact that Plainview is such a bad man. In his pursuit of wealth in the arena of oil he would step over anyone and anything that got in his way. I spent a great deal of time trying to figure out if he really was a bad person or if it was just a façade he wore. I kept waiting for his softer side. At one point in the film we discover that a young girl is beaten by her father if she doesn’t say her prayers. After Plainview discovers oil and enables the town to thrive he sits her down and asks her, within earshot of her father, whether or not she is still beaten. She relies that she is not beaten, and is let go. Plainview looks at the girl’s father, who uncomfortably looks away. Plainview stopped the girl from being abused, but there is no sense that it was because he cared for her, as much as he wanted to exercise power over her father.

A friend of mine pointed out that throughout the film Plainview was never seen to enjoy anything. He was always working in some capacity. Any time that he had been eating, he would stop during the scene. The only time that he is seen eating is during a scene where he is talking to a preacher. While they converse Plainview eats a piece of meat, which is representative of how he has and will continue to treat the holy man. Otherwise he seems never to eat, and there is never a remote possibility of any type of love relationship for Plainview.

Yet there is one enjoyment that Plainview does have during the film. Alcohol. Plainview does drink and it is usually followed by harmful events. It is as though he can keep all of his appetites under control except for the one. It is his only release, his only weakness.

Lewis’ performance is not the only powerful acting in the film. Plainview’s nemesis in the film is a young religious zealot named Eli Sunday (Paul Dano). Dano played Dwayne in Little Miss Sunshine, the older brother who says nothing through much of the film. His countenance was so vastly different in this film that I had to look him up on IMDB just to figure out who he was. He and Lewis were dynamic on the screen together and complimented each other well.

For a film called ‘There Will Be Blood’ there is very little blood. I can see why people would be turned off by the title. The guy who went with me to see this film commented that he thought we were going to a zombie movie. The film is more than 2 ½ hours long, yet the time flies while watching this film, mostly because of Lewis’ engaging performance. Director Paul Thomas Anderson has redeemed himself of his past infractions which include such awful films as Punch Drunk Love, Magnolia and Boogie Nights. This film is another 10 out of 10.

Next up: No Country for Old Men

Downfall, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel

This film is about Traudl Junge (portrayed by Alexandra Maria Lara), a young secretary for Adolf Hitler and her experience in the bunker in Berlin during Hitler’s last days. Though the central character is Junge, the show is stolen by Bruno Ganz, who plays Hitler. His portrayal of Hitler is stunning. The physical resemblance is spot on, but that’s not all. Ganz had the stance, the mannerisms and emotion to really embody the Nazi dictator. His performance was haunting, as evidenced in the scene where he instructs his confidants on the appropriate way to commit suicide. He explains how to take your own life without the chance of getting it wrong, and he does it as if he was explaining how to bake a cake.

The film really captured the insanity of Berlin during those days in April 1945. Much of the power behind the film comes from careful cinematography and editing. At one point in the film, with the Russians threatening to take the city, one of Hitler’s advisors returns home, where his wife has dinner ready. He can’t bear to tell his wife that all is lost, so he sits down at the table with his two young children. His hands are below the table, and a camera shot shows him holding two grenades. He pulls the pins on the grenades, and the camera cuts to a shot outside the window, where the explosion is seen. The last thing seen in the scene is his daughter’s stuffed animal lying on the street.

In another scene Eva Braun (Juliane Köhler) is seen inside the bunker writing a letter to a sister. Her voice is heard as she writes the letter with cuts to the voice of Magda Goebbels (Corinna Harfouch) who is writing a letter to her oldest son. Braun writes her letter as if all is fine. She tells her sister that she can have Eva’s furs and jewelry, and spends all of her time talking of superficial things. Goebbels writes of the imminent defeat of the Third Reich and how she can’t bear to live or let her children live in a world run by the capitalists. While the two voices are heard, scenes of violence and destruction can be seen. German soldiers (some of them just children) are seen shooting each other so that they won’t be taken alive.

I knew what would ultimately happen in this film. I knew that Hitler would commit suicide and that Berlin would be taken by the Russians. Yet the suspense of the film was incredible. This film made me uncomfortable. It was hard to watch at times, and even made me choke up. That in my mind is the sign of a well made film. The screen time of the film is two and a half hours. But it doesn’t seem like it. That is another sign of a good film. The story is intense, the filming was flawless, the acting was outstanding, and this film is without a doubt a 10 of 10.

(Next film review: There will be Blood, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson)