The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Andrew Dominik adapted Ron Hansen’s novel and refused to put the killing at the end. In the last stretch of its 160 minutes the film stops watching Jesse James and follows Robert Ford onto a Manhattan stage, where he re-enacts the murder again and again until the audiences turn on him. Roger Deakins built a lens rig here that now carries his name. He took the front element off a 9.8mm Kinoptic and mounted glass from old wide angle lenses onto Arri macros; the vignetting and colour fringing landed on transitional shots, imitating period photography. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis wrote the score, and Cave turns up late as a strolling balladeer in a crowded bar, leaving Ford to hear lyrics that humiliate him. Shooting was based in Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg. Brad Pitt won the Coppa Volpi at Venice. Casey Affleck and Deakins were both nominated at the Oscars and neither won. The film never reached 4 million dollars in North America, and Dominik says the studio refused to release the version he prefers, roughly 15 minutes longer. A good fit if you accept the killing as a hinge rather than a climax and stay with Ford afterwards. Not for viewers waiting on robberies; the train job is over early and what follows is waiting.