the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford
well it was robert ford, that dirty little coward
i wonder now how he feels
for he ate of jesse’s bread and he slept in jesse’s bed
and he laid poor jesse in his grave
well kindof. it seems that in order to watch a modern western you have to have some grounding in metaphysics and psychology.
another revisionist western. a bit unforgiven, in that it deals with similar themes and ideas and has a haunting, bleak poetry to it. unforgiven, a film with death at it’s black heart, dealt in a monstrous, biblical, gothic, historical take on not only the western as a genre but the (a)morality, myths, mess and violence that were ever a part of modern america’s bloody and muddy birth. the assassination of jesse james… is on a much smaller scale, a more personal take on myth and legend and fame (or notoriety more than anything else).
it takes those sepia photographs and unmakes, unmasks and unravels the stories and philosophy within. the folklore and the song of jesse james is one of robin hood, of stealing from the much maligned banks and railroads of missouri and kansas. the truth is something muddier and unheroic, a man in mental and physical decline, a man lost in his own shadow heading inexorably towards death, as much by his own hand as anothers. it also raises the question of how thieves and murderers become legends.
the film itself is long and loose and occasionally rambling but not any worse off for it. it’s a beautifully drained, washed-out world to look at. everyone looks ill. the landscape, barren and colourless, looms large over everything – time, loneliness, violence – with an imposing almost hallucinatory quality, all empty chairs, skeletal trees, stretching emptiness and unsettled sky.
it’s as much a character study of robert ford and his brother as it is jesse. the film watches the gradual undoing of robert ford long after jesse james’ death. in the end both men have courted an infamy they neither want nor know how to deal with and with grim inevitability it leads to their deaths.
“you know what i expected? applause.”
nick cave and warren ellis: song for bob
the score by cave and ellis (much more a collaboration to my ears anyway than the proposition) is as barren as the land filling the screen. simple piano chords and scraping of violin. it fits. unlike the hokey nick cave cameo towards the end. this and the gloriously straight white teeth aside are the only bum notes in an otherwise pitch perfect film.
some music that seems appropriate:
- james blackshaw: transient life in twilight
- 16 horsepower: outlaw song
- john fahey: on doing an evil deed blues
- william elliott whitmore: cold and dead
for the readers out there you may wish to cast an eye or two over ron hansen’s novel of the same name.
