26. THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (2007)
Directed by Andrew Dominik
Andrew Dominik’s long awaited follow-up to his extraordinary debut, CHOPPER, was as big a change of pace as it was possible to be. While CHOPPER was a brash and dynamic film about a charismatic criminal, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD is not a film about a charismatic criminal – James, but the man who killed him. It’s languorous, hypnotic and gloriously designed.
When I made my best of 2007 list – this came top. Given two or three years, other films from that year have passed it, more a reflection of their increased prominence in my mind than any second thoughts about this, for it remains, in my mind, an absolutely astonishing, beautiful and brilliant film.
Brad Pitt gives one of his best performances as James, Dominik uses his unquestionable star-quality as a character trait, keeping James enigmatic, yet incredibly charismatic, while Casey Affleck’s Ford is a sensational piece of work, one of the performances of the year, if not the decade.
It would be remiss to describe the film without mentioning the similarity to the work of Terrence Malick, long uninterrupted takes set against gorgeous pastoral backgrounds, with naturalistic sound design. Dominik managed to overcome these comparisons, though, and made a film of singular quality, a film that I honestly thought would nestle in my top ten of the decade. At this stage of the list, we’re talking narrow margins, indeed.
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