The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: A visually beautiful and immersive Western
February 18, 2022
“Can’t figure it out, do you want to be like me or do you want to be me?”
The film shows that fear and obsession can counteract with rational thinking and therefore makes you blind. This leads to; losing your true self and to action you will later regret. These actions will eventually backfire on you.
Even though we already know part of the plot because the climax is literally described in the title, the story was still very captivating due to; the strong characters portrayed by actors with great acting skills and the beautiful aesthetics.
The money train scene
Roger Deakins created some beautiful cinematography, which was complemented by the beautiful score. My favorite scene is the arrival of the train, in the beginning of the film, which created a very strong and emotional atmosphere. The cinematography was just perfect.
It starts with staging that moves the camera from behind Jesse James looking at the pitch black woods, to just the pitch black woods in front of him, which builds anticipation. During this, you first hear the train becoming louder and louder, which then flows over into the exciting and somewhat daunting score when you see the lights of the train. This created a lot of tension in the scene.
After this, the camera pans past the trees, revealing the masked characters by the movement of the lighting, which looked beautiful and frightening at the same time. It visualizes the masked characters lurking in the woods, like a predator lurking in the shadows to catch its prey. The cinematography, combined with the exciting and daunting score, resulted in a scene that was as daunting as it was mesmerizing.
Voice-overs… a hit or miss
The voice-overs throughout the film felt a bit too basic and information focussed for my liking. I prefer something more intimate, like Terrence Malick does. I’m also usually not too keen on Westerns, but overall this was a great film.
