nan | 楠木

With such a long (and stupid, if I may say so) title, it is not surprising that this arthouse western itself suffers from the same lack of conciseness. Which is ultimately unfortunate, since this film boasts many other qualities, such as great cinematography and music, as well as a very satisfying final 30 minutes. All that, though, cannot redeem the derailed film that runs at 160 minutes long.

The film stars Brad Pitt as Jesse James, the celebrity American outlaw of the 19th century, and Casey Affleck as Robert Ford, the man who (no surprises here) killed James. The story revolves around the final days of James, and how Ford transforms from a young man who idolized James to “the Coward”. While the source material is definitely interesting – James was a true murderous thug, but the people of his time seemed to genuinely adore him as a public celebrity – the plot leaves too many questions unanswered, such as the most basic one, “why did Ford decide to do it?”

Even worse, most of the film’s time is wasted on side characters (the other members of the James gang) that are neither interesting nor contribute to the portrayal of the central characters. The middle 2 hours of this film is completely sidetracked and boring.

The film sort of redeems itself in the final 30 minutes (another one of those films…), in the climax (the killing) and ironically, the epilogue. A brief but much more interesting look at Ford’s life after being labeled as the Coward (and Ford’s own untimely demise) is offered, and this is far more engaging material. However, it comes too short too late to really save the picture.

6/10