Anyone looking for a typical fast action Western or cowboy movie should look elsewhere. This film is different.



Jesse James emerged from the guerilla bushwacking version of the Civil War in Missouri to become a notorious bank and train robber after the Confederate defeat. But despite a romantic image as the last rebel fighter, a Robin Hood who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor, Jesse James was actually just a violent outlaw, in it for himself.



This film opens with the final robbery by the James gang in 1879, followed by the departure of Jesse's older brother Frank. The camera work, especially at the beginning and towards the end, is sometimes outstanding, film as art. The story is very slow moving, a lot of conversation, with occasional bursts of violence, in a way that feels very real. It takes a while to work out exactly who the gang hangers-on are, and how some of them are related to each other.



Rather than a Robin Hood, Jesse James is brilliantly portrayed by Brad Pitt as an increasingly paranoid killer. His murder of former gang members he believes plan to turn him in for the reward, and a falling out between two of the outlaws over one sleeping with the stepmother of the other, ultimately leads to Bob Ford and his brother Charlie planning to kill Jesse, as they stay with him while he hides out under the name of Thomas Howard. The scene is played as if Jesse knew what was coming and let it happen on purpose, turning his back on an armed Bob Ford. There's a feeling of Jesus and Judas in "Jesus Christ Superstar", but there's little indication why the unpredictable Jesse has chosen this course.



The Ford brothers get little satisfaction in the end, with Robert Ford going down in history as "The dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard". Mary-Louise Parker has a far too small role as Jesse's wife Zee.