3.10.2008

the coward robert ford

has anyone seen the assassination of jesses james yet? we ordered ourselves a little pay-per-view at the cabin and i was pleasantly surprised. it's easily one of the prettiest filmed movies i've ever seen. and after a little research (clicking the link on imdb counts as research, okay.) i found out that the same cinematographer also filmed the village. oh be still my heart, i think i'm in love.

i went to see that movie twice in the theatres. i never do that. ever. the village was beautiful. everything about it was beautiful. the colors, the mood, the acting, the dialogue. everything. (i know that a lot of people didn't like it because of the unrealistic ending, but i guess i'm more concerned with how a film makes me feel than the validity of it's plot.)

i felt the exact same way while watching the assassination. as soon as it ended i wanted to press rewind and watch it again.

it's definitely not a western in the traditional sense. it's dark, psychological and filled with feelings of paranoia and betrayal. i didn't really feel like there was a clear cut protagonist or antagonist, i just felt badly for both bob ford and jesse james. i found it easy to empathize with them, and came away from the film disliking both of the men just as much as i liked them. but i think that may have been the point. you start to feel differently about the sins of men when you see them through the sinner's eyes. it's easy to condemn their acts, but much more difficult to condemn the men.

in the end, i felt there was a lack of compassion for *robert ford. i don't think that old man needed to shoot and kill him. the remorse and shame he felt at the end of his life was probably far worse than death itself.

*hats off to you, casey affleck. your older brother can't even touch your acting skills.

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