A revisionist western (or otherwise known as "post western") is a genre that has been sort of revived in later years (think True Grit, The Revenant a.o.). But of this modern stock one of them sort of stands out. It is not in the sense that the revision as such is any different in "The asssassination of Jesse James...", rather that it does not try to manipulate you into an ethical judgement during its runtime. Ususally the "morality" is spelled out in the plot structure or the way the characters are introduced. Not so much here.
Jesse James (and his gang) is probably the most famous of the famous outlaws of the "old west". Not least because of the circumstances in which his life was ended. His "companion" Robert Ford shot him in the back in his own home, and this has become a sort of legendary "heroic" tale, that almost inevitably leads to sympathy for Jesse James, rather than Ford, his bane. The movie does try and wrestle a bit with these preconceptions and in my opinion is its only justification.
The plot follows a basic search through wikipedia I would presume and I will not try and plot it out for you here. The director goes to great lengths as far as I can tell to make sure that specific historical details are correct and that any kind of sentimetalism is removed so that we do get a chance to get under the skin of all the implicits.
The cinematography is basically spotless, but it has the "modern" faded colours or even crushed blacks that tend to annoy me as I always feel it is a lack of trust in your ability to let it look "natural" to darken or fade it.
It took me a good deal of time to get engaged in the story as I basically knew where it had to lead and I did not really connect with any of the characters, except for Ford, brilliantly and quirkily played by Casey Affleck. And I might add that once again I am annoyed by Brad Pitt, who just does not have the ability to play a role like this with any depth. He is just a pretty face that sells tickets. The acting contrast between Affleck and Pitt is gigantic.
Most of the supporting actors are fine, but sort of forgettable. The sole point of this movie is to try and understand how a personality like that of Ford´s actually work. And that I think the movie does a pretty decent job at.
I really feel that same uneasiness around this gang of psychopaths that Robert Ford has idolized since his youth that is portrayed in Ford. He is himself a sort of psychopath himself, but he does have softer sides to him that is explored. He keeps a chest of pulp magazines glorifying the life of the James Gang and their leader. In the old days there weren´t that much of a heroic kind of lifespan when you had to survive in the frontier on your own as a farmer or such. The only other possibility was to become a criminal of some kind and this is what the substory of the unconscious of Ford is about.
He just slowly realizes that reality does not match his fantasy at all and his attraction towards the real Jesse James grows from idolizing to wanting to kill him. This is the story of the movie and it does a decent job of holding this through the runtime.
But afterall, I feel quite disappointed with it. I liked Affleck´s performance very much and he really looks lie someone who is completely misplaced in all of this but thinks he can become what he isn´t while attempting to lie to himself about the quality of his idol.
The rest is just sort of filler in order to tell the story and it is sort of thin. The realism though is very much there, like gunshots that sound weird, because they actually sound realistic or fistfights that actually sound like knuckles hitting skin and so on. This is a rare opportunity to experience and it must be recommended for that. But from an overall point of view it ends up being a mediocre movie that in many ways seem quite pointless (except for the few aspects I have pointed out)
6/10