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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD] | ![The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZFFXQpaUL._SL500_.jpg)
| Director: Andrew Dominik
Actors: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell, Mary-louise Parker, Brooklynn Proulx
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $35.99
Buy New: $12.99
You Save: $23.00 (64%)
New (3) Used (7) from $11.96
Rating:  204 reviews
Sales Rank: 6698
Format: Ac-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: HD DVD
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 160 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 5.3 x 0.5
MPN: 113762
UPC: 085391137627
EAN: 0085391137627
ASIN: B0010V616U
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: February 26, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Of all the movies made about or glancingly involving the 19th-century outlaw Jesse Woodson James, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is the most reflective, most ambitious, most intricately fascinating, and indisputably most beautiful. Based on the novel of the same name by Ron Hansen, it picks up James late in his career, a few hours before his final train robbery, then covers the slow catastrophe of the gang's breakup over the next seven months even as the boss himself settles into an approximation of genteel retirement. But in another sense all of the movie is later than that. The very title assumes the audience's familiarity with James as a figure out of history and legend, and our awareness that he was--will be--murdered in his parlor one quiet afternoon by a backshooting crony. The film--only the second to be made by New Zealand-born writer-director Andrew Dominik--reminds us that Dominik's debut film, Chopper (2000), was the cunningly off-kilter portrait of another real-life criminal psychopath who became a kind of rock star to his society. The Jesse James of this telling is no Robin Hood robbing the rich to give to the poor, and that train robbery we witness is punctuated by acts of gratuitous brutality, not gallantry. Nineteen-year-old Bob Ford (Casey Affleck) seeks to join the James gang out of hero worship stoked by the dime novels he secretes under his bed, but his glam hero (Brad Pitt) is a monster who takes private glee in infecting his accomplices with his own paranoia, then murdering them for it. In the careful orchestration of James's final moments, there's even a hint that he takes satisfaction in his own demise. Affleck and Pitt (who co-produced with Ridley Scott, among others) are mesmerizing in the title roles, but the movie is enriched by an exceptional supporting cast: Sam Shepard as Jesse's older, more stable brother Frank; Sam Rockwell as Bob Ford's own brother Charlie, whose post-assassination descent into madness is astonishing to behold; Paul Schneider, Garret Dillahunt, and Jeremy Renner as three variously doomed gang members; and Mary-Louise Parker, who as Jesse's wife Zee has few lines yet manages with looks and body language to invoke a wellnigh-novelistic backstory for herself. There are also electrifying cameos by James Carville, doing solid actorly work as the governor of Missouri; Ted Levine, as a lawman of antic spirit; and Nick Cave, composer of the film's score (with Warren Ellis) and screenwriter of the Aussie "Western" The Proposition, suddenly towering over a late scene to perform the folk song that set the terms for the book and movie's title. Still, the real costar is Roger Deakins, probably the finest cinematographer at work today. The landscapes of the movie (mostly in Alberta and Manitoba) will linger in the memory as long as the distinctive faces, and we seem to feel the sting of its snows on our cheeks. Interior scenes are equally persuasive. Few Westerns have conveyed so tangibly the bleakness and austerity of the spaces people of the frontier called home, and sought in vain to warm with human spirit. --Richard T. Jameson
Product Description
Everyone in 1880s America knows Jesse James. He?s the nation?s most notorious criminal hunted by the law in 10 states. He?s also the land?s greatest hero lauded as a Robin Hood by the public. Robert Ford? No one knows him. Not yet. But the ambitious 19-year-old aims to change that. He?ll befriend Jesse ride with his gang. And if that doesn?t bring Ford fame he?ll find a deadlier way. Friendship becomes rivalry and the quest for fame becomes obsession in this virile epic produced in part by Ridley Scott and featuring gripping portrayals by Brad Pitt (winner of the Venice Film Festival Best Actor Award) as Jesse and Casey Affleck as the youth drawn closer to his goal?and farther from his own humanity.Running Time: 160 min.Format: DVD HD Genre: WESTERN/COWBOYS UPC: 085391137627 Manufacturer No: 113762
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| Customer Reviews: Read 199 more reviews...
 Probably The Most Underappreciated Movie Of The Decade October 12, 2008
Ellie---Penny Dreadful---Reasoner (Ever On The East Side)
I can't say enough about this near-perfect motion picture. If it is guilty of moving a little slowly in some parts, and (the inevitable critical refrain when shooting a historical picture) taking liberties with supposed fact, then it more than makes up for that in so many other ways. I can only say I hope this team of actors, directors, producers and writers gets together again soon to make another film. This is history, filmmaking, biography, storytelling, and the presentation of the legends of Americana as they all ought to be, and shame on the Academy for slighting this movie at the (increasingly out of touch) Oscars. As along with its pitch-perfect narration and soundtrack it alternates from its slightly fuzzy dreamy quality to its pull-no-punches brand of stark realism, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford weaves a hypnotic tale as has little else I've ever seen. If anyone thinks to dismiss either Brad Pitt or Casey Affleck as lightweight actors, watch this and learn otherwise. I'd put this on the ten best list of the 2000's thus far. Congratulations to everyone involved in this great classic.
While slow moving, this film is excellent. October 12, 2008
C. K. Smith (New England, USA)
This film caught me by surprise. The screenwriting is excellent, and Brad Pitt gives what may be his best performance ever as Jesse James in the sunset of his notorious career. The film is as much about morality as about a peculiar period in American history, a time of expansion westward which was conducted at great cost to many. I rather enjoyed the bleak yet realistically portrayed conditions of frontier town life and the typical period style shameless sideshow staged events that this movie profiles. While the title gives away the culminating event, by the end of the film, you find yourself sympathizing with the fabled outlaw, despite his horrific deeds. Mr. Pitt's performance is wonderful; his silences, body language and facial expressions are as well acted as his dialogue. However, be forewarned: if you like action movies, this isn't one of those. Quite the opposite: it is one of those slow as molasses unfolding story movies.
Western Art September 26, 2008
D. May (Santa Monica, CA United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Westerns are constantly being reinvented. Sometimes just adequately. But sometimes, as in the case of this film, they set the bar for a whole new level of enjoyment within the genre. And ironically, (much like a Sergio Leone film) it's being done by a Director who's not even American! You'd think that we Americans would know best how to make movies about our own history, as well as within a genre that all but defined early American cinema, but Dominik (Director of the Australian classic "Chopper") aced this one. He's captured the flavor and feel of the Reconstruction Era (as best we can understand it today).
The whole film is a Western-noir of epic proportions. A Greek Tragedy that slices open and lays bare the reality of notoriety, gained at the cost of crime...the notion of romanticizing the Old West has never been so thoroughly destroyed, as in this film. No one is a winner in this movie. And for my money, THAT is what makes it so great. That disconnect that you often feel with the times when watching other westerns isn't present in this film. The characters are so genuine, so real, and the attention to historic detail in every facet of the movie is so meticulous, that you get a sense of not being just a mere spectator, but of actually being a silent, awe-struck participant, standing just barely and always at arms length, wishing you could reach in and halt the tragedy that is unfolding in front of you.
The film's BEAUTIFUL cinematography and musical score also help to gel moments of extreme, gut-wrenching emotion...like the build-up to the scene where Jesse gets killed, for example, which is so poetically rendered. At the moment Jesse says; "Don't that picture look dusty?", the score comes in, and this point in time is set in a mournful, heart-stopping way. Bob & Charley (Affleck and Rockwell) are so limp with fear, love, shame, remorse, etc., it's almost beautifully unbearable to even watch. For anyone who knows their history and what's about to happen, you feel as if you'd give anything in the world to somehow turn back the clock at this critical juncture in our nation's past. To somehow right the apparent wrong.
Casey Affleck is AMAZING as a squirrelly, mincing villain...he's really the ultimate stalker! Yet, by the end of the film, you can so thoroughly feel his own pain over what he's done, that you don't know whether to embrace him, or loathe him. His character was not an easy one to portray. Bob Ford made the history books, but not in the dire way he so longed to be remembered. Ultimately, he realized that. But it was more than just too late to redeem himself. He would be immortalized forever in the less than flattering die which he alone had cast himself in.
It's a long film, as some people have complained about. But for American history buffs...and for pure film buffs who enjoy movies that are more art than prepackaged, predictable Hollywood westerns...this film will adorn your library, much the way an original Russel painting might hang with prominence over your fireplace. If you love the genre and you want to be transported back in time, then by all senses, the film actually seems to end too soon! ;-)
 Movie: 4/5 Picture Quality: 3.5/5 Sound Quality: 3/5 Extras: 0.5/5 September 25, 2008
LGANS316 (Tokyo Japan)
Version: U.S.A / Region A, B, C
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
VC-1 BD-25
Average video bit rate: 15.70 Mbps
Running time: 2:39:40
Movie size: 22,41 GB
Disc size: 23,94 GB
DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps English / French / Spanish
Subtitles: English / French / Spanish
#Documentary - The Assassination of Jesse James: Death of an Outlaw (SD - 32 minutes)
You have to watch it twice... September 21, 2008
Chad Sosna (Chicago)
I would like to say that I "hated" this movie or that it "was great." But neither is true. To get it, you must watch it twice. Because the movie works with underlayments of psychological interaction, you pick up much more the second time.
Don't be discouraged by the meandering beginning, which throws you into a cast of at-first-undistinguishable secondary characters. You know Brad Pitt is Jesse James and that Casey Affleck is Robert Ford, but the poor choice of throwing a bunch of other at-first anonymous men into the story early and randomly mars the beginning. (Plus, its nearly three-hour length demonstrates that the movie needed far better editing.)
The portrayal of Jesse James as conflicted and Robert Ford as hero-worshipper is surely a fictional amplification, but nonetheless interesting. Casey Affleck is sheer brilliance as a fey, admiring, sometimes brave, curious fan of Jesse James. There is a sort of homoerotic attachment. His skills as an actor are fully flexed in this extraordinary role.
Don't get too excited about Pitt, though. He's fine to look at and passes as an actor. Sam Shepherd and the others in the cast do a good-enough job--but not stunning. The cinematography truly deserves all its praise, as it's moving art on the screen. The exteriors of the train robbery alone were oddly beautiful and serene.
This hardly qualifies as a "western" though it has the old-time look to it. Very little horse-riding, shoot-'em-up stuff. In fact, it almost aspires to be a differently-flavored "Brokeback Mountain."
It's worth a look because it's such an unusual film.
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