First off, let me state that there’s nothing I like more than a good Western. I was primed to like this movie going in. There were aspects of it that were tremendous. The cinematography is gorgeous. If you can ignore the plot and the dialog and just look at the pictures, it’s a great film.

Let’s start with my complaint about the dialog. Did people really talk this way 100 years ago? There’s something weird about the dialog in this movie; I can’t put my finger on it exactly. It brought too much attention to itself. It was like, “Look at the cool way people talked back then.” When I’m watching a movie, I don’t want to be reminded every second that I’m watching a movie. I want to get into the story and be transported to a different place. The dialog got in the way of that.

Then there’s the plot. I don’t buy Jesse James as Jesus Christ. He was a bank robber, for Pete’s sake.  There too much Christianity overlaid here; you’ve got Jesse as Jesus and the gang as disciples and Robert Ford as Judas. I could barely buy Brad Pitt as Jesse James. There’s a point at which the star wattage of an actor outshines the roles he plays- and it’s happened to Brad Pitt. I don’t know the cure for Pitt’s problem. How does he cease being Brad Pitt and become the characters he’s portraying in movies? He’ll continue to work because there’s people out there that will see any movie he’s in, because he’s Brad Pitt.  Not me. This is Casey Affleck’s movie. He’s a convincingly smarmy worm- very unlikable. At first you think maybe he’s retarded, but then you just don’t like the guy. Are things really this cut and dried in real life? Was Jesse James really so good, and was Robert Ford really such an unlikable coward? How do you enjoy a movie in which the star (Robert Ford is the star of this movie, not Jesse James) is such a smarmy worm? It’s fascinating to watch, but it makes you uncomfortable in your seat. Assassination is to be applauded for this, I suppose. It doesn’t pander to the audience- this isn’t a “feel good” movie. It’s difficult. I’d just like there to be more shades of gray and less Christian overtones.  Finally, it was interesting to see James Carville as the Governor of Missouri.  I didn’t know the guy had an acting career as well as being a politico. His appearance adds  political gravitas.

I admit I enjoyed the movie. It’s worth seeing.  Americans now have their own Personal Jesus as none other than Jesse James.