Starring: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell
Director: Andrew Dominik
I’ve got to admit – I was more than surprised. A western in this era of cinema, and especially one by a director I’d never heard of, did *not* make my heart “flutter with anticipation”. In fact, I half-expected this movie to be merely a launch for Brad Pitt to try and win an Oscar; not much else really seemed to be in this movie. Of course, that opinion was adopted purely on the fact that the title sounds like a joke, Brad Pitt was in it, and the director was a nobody (I pretend to be a movie-snob whenever possible 
). I hadn’t seen any trailers, hadn’t read any reviews, and didn’t know anybody who’d heard of the movie; it wasn’t until later that I realised this movie was an Oscar nominee. But even then, it was in the categories of cinematography and supporting actor, which didn’t excite me enough to go and find out what all the hoo-hah was.
So, when I tell you that this movie absolutely floored me, you can imagine my surprise! As is obvious to even the most stupid, this movie is about Jesse James – legendary outlaw and unusual anti-hero from the good ol’ days of the “Wild West”. But to merely describe it like that is to do it an insult; this is more than about Jesse James – it’s about Robert Ford, his brother, the James gang, the aura of the West, and the need for a reckless society to make mountains out of men.
The movie centers on Jesse James (Brad Pitt) at the fag end of his outlaw career. The old gang has broken up, and all that’s left is a motley crew, one of whom is Charley Ford (Sam Rockwell), a bumbling crook, who, like everybody else in the gang (with the possible exception of Frank, Jesse’s eldest brother) basks in Jesse’s shadow, and is happy to be the legend’s flunky. Jesse James has already established himself as an icon, an image that has been glorified in a series of dime-novels. Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) is Charley’s kid brother and Jesse’s biggest fan; his worship of the man borders on obsession, having never really outgrown worshiping this hero of his youth (At one point, Robert narrates how he used to have a list of things that he and James had in common – including the fact that they were the youngest of three brothers, and that the second children of both families had 6-letter names!). Robert, only 19, begs to be a part of the gang, and, despite his innocence and foolhardiness, is taken under James’s wing for reasons unknown to anybody save James.
From the start, we know the outcome of this tale (it’s in the damn title, after all!) and we can’t help get the feeling that Jesse James does too; his relationship with Robert is curious and strained, yet their fates seem unfathomably intertwined. We see James as a ruthless outlaw, a seemingly semi-crazed lunatic, with severe bouts of depression, and also as the loving family man, with an almost primal instinct for danger. He never takes off his guns, and is rumoured to be impossible to sneak up on. There is a tension in him that you don’t see, but can feel – maybe it comes from being an outlaw and having to run, maybe it’s from living under an alias, maybe it’s just the guilt of his conscience. Whatever the reason, he seems a man resigned to his fate, and one who seems to have recognised his executioner before the latter has even realised it. Perfectly balancing this monolith of a man is Robert Ford – a kid who wants to grow up quickly and can’t decide if he wants to *be* Jesse James, or be *like* Jesse James (A question James puts to him soon after they first meet.). Having forever lived with being the baby, he wants to prove himself to everybody; and eventually, he realises that the only way for him to do it is to take out the legend – be The man who killed Jesse James.
The beauty of this movie is not so much in the tale – there are no surprises, no serious plot twists, nothing that would make you leap out of your seat – as it is in the telling. The cinematography is beyond words – every shot, every scene , every aspect communicates something about the men, and the world they live in. This is a hard land, and these are hard men. Pitt does a fabulous job – his Jesse James seems etched from stone, untouchable and austere. But the real surprise is Affleck! While most people remember him from his small role in the Ocean’s 11 trilogy, I recently had a chance to see him in Gone Baby Gone (also a *fantastic* movie!), directed by brother Ben Affleck, and he showed that he was no slouch in the acting department. That image is only reinforced in this movie. Although I was initially surprised that he was nominated for the Best Supporting Oscar, having watched this movie, he completely deserves it. Affleck’s Robert Ford as a man struggling with who he is, and who he becomes, and he portrays him with a suitable amount of subtlety and edginess. Even the score and the narrative do a brilliant job of helping the audience focus on the finer nuances of the characters’, um, characters?
All in all, I couldn’t find a single thing wrong with the movie; and considering that it’s almost three hours long, that’s pretty impressive.
For further info: The Assassination… at IMDb.com
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Social transparency, #1
I wonder if society could really handle absolute transparency. In every regard, in every situation. Not just knowledge of the work behind-the-scene, but also knowledge of what everybody was really thinking. What would happen if we ceased to be fake? Refrained from acting on a need to be “acceptable”? Desisted from putting up the facades that are such an integral part of our lifestyle now? Would society be able to take it?
This effectively sprung from my complaint that offices are a farce; everyone pretends to care and to actually give a damn where the brand is going and what the company is doing, and really, almost nobody ever cares. Seriously. In any work-place, the prime objective has always been to put the company first – to think of what we can do to make it better, to push ourselves to new limits to make the company succeed. We work endless hours, with little hope of a satisfying reward. We sweat and toil, we break our backs, we scale new heights, all with the over-riding aim of “brand development” or “company success”.
Why?
Honestly. I haven’t met over a handful of people who truly believed in their company and would be willing to sacrifice everything for the nameless faces in the boardroom. At every job, your boss will always expect you to come up with ideas, will always expect you to think of the brand and the company, will always expect you to stay in office as long as possible, with only the company’s benefit in mind. And yet, how many of these people can honestly say they would *not* shift companies to a rival or to other fields on *any* given condition? Isn’t that what true loyalty is? Sticking with something, no matter what? Why should I be expected to give up all my free time to work more hours for a company, with no reward? How do I benefit? Sure, maybe a year later, I’ll get an increment. But is that enough? In the end, aren’t all our services really up for the highest bidder? For many, the deciding factor is money; but for a few others, it may be something else – better environment, better superiors, better equipment, etc. The point is, we all have a price.
Keeping that in mind, why are we expected to be *willing* to do all these things? One of my seniors here recently wanted to know why my colleague had left. His contention was that he didn’t have a family or any relatives visiting – why, then, is he in such a hurry? How stupid is *that*! Why on Earth would anyone stick around in the office, “just because”? He doesn’t have any work left, and so, what, instead of going home to some kind of life, he’s expected to just sit here and *wait*? And I used to get that at my old job, too. What the f*ck?
(Ironically enough, I got the same treatment the other day. Just because I’m a bachelor living on his own, for some reason, I’m expected to adopt the office as a second home. The shitheads.)
…. to be continued.