The rumors and news that precursed this film were pretty foreboding. I heard reviewers and talking heads spouting things along the lines like the film is as long and pointless as the title, that editing and release were constantly being postponed due to no one involved with the thing being in any way pleased with how it was turning out. Dire hopeless things. With this sort of a bed being made for the film, it's no wonder that no one went to see it. And a real shame too. Kind of. I'm still on the fence about my experience with it really.

One thing that can be said about this film unequivocally and without debate: is that is quite possible the prettiest thing to ever be on the screen. I heard someone compare director Andrew Dominik to Terrence Malick once. The comparision is very worthwhile, but where Malick sacrifices story for stunning scenery and some sort of hodge-podge mixture of new-wave sentimentalism and filmic art, Dominik is able to construct a story and retain his viewer's full interest while still milking every last drop of sheer stunning beauty out of even the most mundane situation, like bathing in a metal tub in the middle of a field.

I can still hardly get my mind around it. The film is more a story of the human ego and its battle with paranoia and insanity, so the whole idea of a western is sacrificed. Except for one scene at the beginning where the James Gang robs a train. Holy crap is that scene beautiful. I mean it's just brimming with the ideal nature of how a film should be shot. Dominik even takes on the idea that all film makers have at one time thought about: "how can I make the Lumiere brother's train coming into station shot more realistic?" If people back then were running out of the theater in fear of the train, they would have been screaming bloody murder after Dominik's shot as they assumed that they were being drug under a train for several dozen feet.

So the film is really a masterpiece and if it is showing in any theaters anywhere near you, and you have not seen it, go see it just for the priviledge of seeing it on the big screen. But it failed for some good reasons:

1. It's not a western. When we, the filmgoing public, spend a hours wage on a film touting itself as a western, we want a gun slinging bad ass, tumbleweed rolling western! Especially if Jesse God-damned James is the subject of the film! Dominik does use western cliches artfully, like the long range telephoto shot or the through the doorframe shot, but western shot conventions done in a new and artistic way are not going to put asses in the chairs.

2. I think I should just stress that this film was supposed to be about Jesse James, but it was the equivalent of an emo band's take on his life.

3. Brad Pitt does not do a stellar job with the role. He's not much of a character actor and that is what Jesse James needs. Casey Affleck however, has risen to the top of my 'if you're in a film, then I'm going to see it regardless of how lame it looks' list.

4. The character development of Jesse James is deeply wanting. Robert Ford was constructed with as much art as the shots. Even the rest of the James gang was done pretty damn well, but, again, JJ is one of the title characters... why the hell do I have such a vague and superficial understanding of his descent into paranoid insanity.

5. Some of the shots... were just... I dunno... there's not many, but they're still very noticeable. Like this one: A very cool narrator leads some of the moments in the film. At one point he tells the viewer how Jesse James suffered from "granulated eyelids" which caused him to blink more than the average man. The shot shows Brad Pitt staring at the camera in a very picturesque setting... unblinking... for like 20 - 30 seconds. I watched for this excessive blinking throughout the film and did not notice it at all. I started to think that I had granulated eyelids. I now can't go through a conversation without watching someone's blinking habits like a scientologist in training.

I still haven't formulated much of an opinion on the movie as a whole, but my God is it wonderfully stunning. So if you like pretty things; go see it.