The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: Critic Reviews

A haunting retelling of one of the enduring outlaw sagas in American culture.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford adds another gauzy chapter to the overtaxed James myth, if not much rhyme or reason, heart or soul.

A tremendously stylish, intelligent retelling of western myth.

...heightened by a rare cinematic artistry that seamlessly melds a probing character essay with a lyrical Western epic.

As this old and twisted Jesse, Brad Pitt is quite good. But the movie really belongs to Casey Affleck as Robert Ford.

Mostly ponderous, despite the unceasingly beautiful imagery.

A psychological chamber drama in which the wide-open spaces are geographic as well as mental.

The look and feel of the movie are as authentic as any Western since Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller...

This is a 160-minute art Western, and if you're up for such a beast it is a glory to behold. It's gorgeous, but rarely for the sake of mere gorgeousness, and languorous, but never listless.

Awesome splendor and a striking essay on celebrity reward those who brave the 2 1/2-hour run time.

It is no mean feat to make a boring film about Jesse James, but Andrew Dominik has pulled it off in style.

The movie has the space and freedom of classic Western epics.

The oddest major studio release of the year, and one of the most admirable.

Moseying along for 160 minutes, this revisionist western by writer-director Andrew Dominik makes a wan attempt to present the Jesse James legend as the dawn of celebrity culture in America.

Everything about The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is longer than it needs to be. Its title, for one thing. Its duration -- two hours and 40 minutes! -- for another.

A better title might have been Jesse James in the Age of Pop Therapy.

The one thing you're not supposed to do during a Western is doze off.

The extraordinary expressive performers, male and female; the haunting interior and exterior conflicts; the painstaking authenticity of the period detail; and the subtly modulated mood shifts all combine to make a modern masterpiece of an old legend.

It's a magnificent throwback to a time when filmmakers found all sorts of ways to refashion Hollywood's oldest and most durable genre.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a gorgeous snooze.

It's a view of the West beyond the myth that's worth enduring, if not relishing.

It's a western destined to outlive the pronouncements of its own death, because it knows that death is only the first stage in the life of legend.

A long, ambitious, fitfully rewarding movie.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford represents a breakthrough in the moviegoing experience. It may be the first time we've been asked to watch a book on tape.

It's a shame that The Assassination of Jesse James, a moody epic directed by Andrew Dominik and based on the 1983 novel by Ron Hansen, never goes much deeper than that tag line.