The Assassination of Jesse James is the homoerotic western that is potent in every aspect, from the mournful cinematography, to the epic story, and to a nearly impeccable cast to execute director Andrew Dominik's visions. It's simply an entertaining ride that has all the ingredients to appeal to those who have zero interests in westerns in general.

Based on the real life stories of Jesse James and his killer Robert Ford, The Assassination couldn't be further away from your typical western productions, as it's at core an arthouse mood piece instead of a gun-slinging action-packing show that offers cheap thrills galore. Dominik's detailed portrait of the two titular characters truly pays off, offering a intriguing time portal into the imagined…

2nd best film of the 21st century.

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Paranoia on a cosmic scale. A myth destabilized. Dominik gives us a Jesse James who is both just a guy and also a god. Not a Christian God, but one of the unpredictable, selfish, ornery, small "g" gods. One with an uncanny way of interpreting signs, of interpreting nature. All those shots of clouds and trees are no Malick-style posturing. We're seeing the world how James sees it. How he reads it. And when we meet him in the movie it's at the very point when he stops being able to reliably read those signs. It unnerves him. The movie is exceptional because it allows you to hold these two ideas of…

Red Dead 2 stole this movies entire aesthetic.

Centering around the relations between a man and his assassin, it’s got the same driving tension as Hamilton. In both works, you know what’s coming from the beginning, and it adds a new layer to every scene in which the characters interact. Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

What masterful work by Roger Deakins! I see why this is often lauded as his best work. The world breathes unlike any Western I’ve seen other than McCabe and Mrs Miller.

Bullets feel like they land for real too. It doesn’t feel like one shot one kill, or like a bloody Tarantino movie. Some shots land, and some don’t. I really liked this…

I've had this DVD sitting on my shelf for the better part of a year now, and for some reason I just never got around to watching this film at all. I thought it would be good, but I didn't expect it to completely blow me away. Everyone is just fantastic in this. Casey Affleck was born to play Robert Ford. Brad Pitt reaches for his inner Tyler Durden in this skin crawling portrayal of the infamous outlaw. The narration is fantastic. The music is spot on. The cinematography is haunting. Just, every little detail about this film felt absolutely perfect to me, I quickly fell in love with it, and I believe it to be one of the greatest…

You can frequently call a long movie one of two things: "poorly paced" or "patient." The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, almost as long as its title, is the latter. It needs, and earns, its runtime as it reveals who the titular characters are, how they feel about each other, and how those feelings change overtime. Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck are impeccably cast, with Pitt exuding the air of a legend who knows his time is coming, and Affleck as a boy desperate to make a name for himself and with a chance to work with his idol.

My main complaint is that the narration didn't do much for me. It seemed like a crutch…

Perfect casting all around, but especially of Brad Pitt as this larger than life celebrity figure of his time that lights up a room and commands such a presence that people nearly worship him in spite of his heinous actions and his seemingly psychopathic tendencies. Like Unforgiven and lots of other great Spaghetti/Revisionist Westerns this is not flattering portrayal of the cinematic Western guman, exploring the exploits of a man who became something of a folk hero, an important American figure who probably was nothing more than a greedy murderer. There's so much to take from the various stories this movie weaves in and out of - it's a tale of fame, betrayal, martyrdom, brotherhood, and the bloody foundations of…