Jesse James

The railway company is buying up land in Missouri. Agents go to the farms and offer a low price; the houses of those who refuse are burned. There is an incident at the James farm and the mother dies. Jesse and Frank run. Then a train is stopped. Then a bank. Part of the public is with them; nobody likes the company and the brothers become a kind of hero. A reward is offered. Jesse marries and wants to stop. But he is wanted now, and there are men in his own gang who do not trust him. Henry King directs. Tyrone Power plays Jesse and Henry Fonda plays Frank; Nancy Kelly and Randolph Scott are in the cast. It is an American production, made in 1939. The film was shot in colour and was one of the large productions of its time. The narrative is not faithful to history; Jesse James is shown here as a wronged farmer and the record does not support that. A horse was killed during the shoot in a scene where it was driven off a cliff; that incident helped bring about oversight of the use of animals on American film sets. Henry Fonda played the same character again in a sequel made a year later. The narrative builds the railway company as the real villain, a view not unusual for the period. The ending keeps to history and Jesse's death is given as it happened. The narrative leaves its woman passive. Its limit is accuracy; the narrative builds a legend and excuses the violence. Who it is for: viewers who like classic Hollywood westerns. Who it is not for: it is historically wrong, conventional, and the ending heavy.