So I’d seen this movie before, a few years back, and wasn’t sure what I thought of it at the time. Watched it again tonight with my son to give my wife a bit of a quiet time break (Jake slept through most of it). I thought it was an interesting movie, enough that I plan to go out and pick up the novel it was based upon. I don’t know a huge amount about the history and myth of Jesse James and the personalities that revolved around him, but I can say the movie told a decent enough story and was really well acted.
The film had an impressive cast of actors, including Brad Pitt, Garret Dillahunt, Jeremy Renner, Sam Rockwell, and Ted Levine (among many others). Great to see good character actors lose themselves in roles.
One thing that struck me about the film was that the violent bits weren’t sugar-coated or minimized, except the very end. Other than that, the gunshots and the wounds were pretty much direct and if not in your face, then prominent enough to make sure you felt the impact. Not in a gory sort of way, but more of a “oh shit” sort of thing. I appreciated the level of effort.
If I had to give one knock to the film, it’s that it was long. Really long. Like 2.5 hours, and that’s about 30 minutes longer than it felt like it needed to be. It’s not a movie I’d watch regularly, but I did appreciate picking it up on Blu-Ray and watching it again.
If there’s a writing tip I take away from it, it’s to have your characters make choices that make sense to them. Might not make sense to the other characters, but give the characters a personal depth and understanding of themselves, and make them make choices that fit who they really are, even if they don’t like that truth.
Anyways. Decent film. Check it out if you have some time and it’s cheap on disc or on streaming somewhere.
If you’ve seen it, what did you think about it?
