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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Blu-Ray)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Rated: R (strong violence and brief sexual references)
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
HD Encoding: 1080p
HD Video Codec: VC-1
Audio: Dolby Digital English 5.1; French 5.1; Spanish 5.1
Subtitles: English; French; Spanish.
Time: 160 minutes
Disc Format: 1 SS/SL Blu-Ray disc.
Case Style: Keep case
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Blu Ray Release Date: February 5, 2008
Instead of giving us a history lesson in how Jesse James became such an infamous American character, writer/ director Andrew Dominik’s adaptation of Ron Hansen’s novel The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford begins more towards the middle and takes us through to the end of Jesse James (Brad Pitt) life. The picture starts as the James gang has resorted to neighbors for co-conspirators to continue their heists. Jesse’s brother Frank (Sam Shepard) decides to quit the bandit life and live out his days in peace. Jesse, proud of his reputation and celebrity, and the fact he was broke, wants to continue on. He enlists the two Ford boys, Charley (Sam Rockwell) and Robert (or Bob) (Casey Affleck) in the gang, with young Bob star stuck by Jesse. Bob’s worship of Jesse springs from the pulps and pamphlets of the day, ripe with stories portraying Jesse as the American Robin Hood. He wants to work with Jesse, but more importantly, latch on to his rising star (tarnished though it may be) as a means to achieve notoriety for himself and a place in history. The feds are onto Jesse as he is public enemy number one and Bob sees this as a means to truly deify Jesse. Lies and betrayals have chased Jesse his whole life, and the older he gets he may find those closest to him will commit the biggest crimes.
With a mouthful of a title, I would assume we all know what happens in the end, but how you get there is where the drama comes in. The picture weighs in at a hefty 160 minutes, and while the story is engaging, it seems like the film should have been edited down by about twenty minutes. Much time is spent on shots of rolling cloud banks and lingering, fish eyed distortions of Jesse’s life with a narrator not really telling us anything we’re not seeing on the screen already. While the filmed images are stunning to look at, courtesy of noted director of photography Roger Deakins, the story behind it often left my mind wandering. It would be drawn back, however, in the few action scenes or when Casey Affleck’s star-struck Bob would figure out just what to do next. Affleck deserves special mention in this film in a role that may eventually be remembered as his break out role (and if not here, then in Gone, Baby, Gone). Affleck plays the troubled Bob Ford as a kid (which he is at all of roughly twenty years old) who is too eager to be a big boy and unable to process what type of life he is asking for by hitching his wagon to the star that is Jesse James. Pitt gives us hints of Tyler Durden at times, finally convincing me it’s not so much Pitt channeling Durden (yet again) but Pitt channeling Pitt, allowing himself to bleed into these roles. In the end, we, and most of America of the time and future historians, will remember Ford arguably as a coward, but also, just maybe, the first “starf***er”.
Video:
Note: I am watching this title using a Marantz VP 11-S1 DLP projector, which has a native resolution of 1080p. I am using a Sony Playstation 3 Blu-Ray player while a Denon 3808CI does the switching and pass through of the video signal. I am utilizing the HDMI capabilities of each piece of equipment.
The Blu-Ray disc is in the VC-1 codec presented at 1080p with an aspect ratio of 2.40:1. Sharpness runs a bit soft and detail is good showing off the cloth in the costumes and sets. Black levels are very deep showing some depth and detail, but routinely collapsing in on one another. Roger Deakins provides a very stylized look to the picture, de-saturating most of the color in favor of a yellow and golden tint. This helps to place the picture firmly in the historical context reminding us of the sepia tinged photos of more than a hundred years ago. Due to this, flesh tones tend to look the same between the actors. There were numerous instances of edge enhancement, so much so that I went back to make sure that’s what I was seeing, and it was. The film makers also used a fish-eye lens during many of the narrated scenes which really caused a distortion and contributes to just a so-so video presentation.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack was attained by the HDMI connection of the Sony Playstation 3 to the Denon 3808CI.
Warner’s disappoints me again on this release by not giving us anything better than a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, but in the context of the movie it really isn’t that necessary. The action is primarily kept in the front three channels with the surrounds coming to life frequently for background noise and environmental effects. Bass is good, but the LFE’s don’t engage too often. The audio track is clean, clear and precise and it does not suffer from any dirt or other problems. The fronts maintained good cohesion across each channel to provide an adequate soundstage and this was consistent when the surrounds were used. There was also good use of panning effects from channel to channel, especially in the first few minutes of the movie when the James gang is out in the woods. You may be looking above you to swat at the various flying insects.
Bonus Material:
Making of Documentary: The Assassination of Jesse James: Death of an Outlaw (32 minutes): This is the one lone bonus item on the Blu-Ray disc and missing from the SD version. It is basically and EPK mixed with a bit of History Channel type doc to give you a fuller picture of the real life situations portrayed in the movie. Whereas the movie doesn’t touch on the James boys’ early life, this piece does, and then it quickly dives through the events in the movie. While not a bad piece, this left me scratching my head as to where the rest of the bonus items may have been, such as several filmed deleted scenes we see here. I’d suggest you seek out other avenues to get the history on Jesse James.
Conclusions:
For a picture that had such a good buzz about it upon release and even up to now, Warner’s doesn’t really throw much love to this HD release. While the movie itself winds up being somewhat clunky and slow, you’ll get to see what may be a career making and award winning role for Casey Affleck. The video on the disc is fair, the audio really doesn’t leave me wanting more, but the lack of bonus materials certainly does.
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