I saw this 2007 film by accident yesterday on AMC.
If Jesse James interests you at all, this is worth watching. Casey Affleck as Ford is an incredible performance. The historical side notes are informative. The filmography is very artistic, every scene reminds me of a Andrew Wyeth painting.
And the demons that James chases is well-played by Pitt. Was he a modern day Robin Hood or a murderer? One wonders. The movie leaves the viewer questioning his intentions.
I tried very hard to watch the HBO series ‘Deadwood’. Slow to almost stop. The gloom but tense scene setting was similar to this. Still couldn’t get through it will put the boxed set on E-bay for some history professor to scarf up.
My folks used to have the piano sheet music for a song about Jesse James. I can’t remember the name of it. I can remember a few words that went something like “but the dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard has laid poor Jesse in his grave.” I had to have it explained that Howard was an alias for that Jesse James used. It was a song that never got played, but was included in a whole book of sheet music. I used to spend a lot of time looking through things like that when I was supposed to be practicing. I could kick myself now for not doing more practicing.
Nick Cave sings the song in a bar in the film and Ford flips out.
I’m actually related to James on my Mother’s side of the family, so he has always interested me.
It was a terrific movie I would enjoy watching again.
I hope it is on again. I am going to check tonight.
Thanks for the reminder. I watched this again yesterday remembering you had mentioned it. Excellent. One line that stands out, would be nice to comfort dying patients (maybe I’m not remembering it verbatim): “Once you’ve looked on the other side, you don’t want to go back.”