Comments on: I Shot Jesse James

by: Livius

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 10:36:11 +0000

Thanks very much, John.
Hmm, I actually hadn’t given the title a lot of thought, but since you mention it…yes, I do believe you’re right.

by: John Hodson

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 10:28:21 +0000

Even the film title is a newspaper headline…

Good work Colin, BTW.

by: Livius

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 09:53:27 +0000

Funny you should mention those headlines. As I watched this I wondered if they had been lifted from actual contemporary newspapers. Probably not, but you’re right about them having a ring of truth.

by: John Hodson

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 09:46:53 +0000

I enjoyed the film, never mind that in budget terms it’s just one step up from ‘Leave it to Beaver’.

Fuller serves it up just like the newspaperman he was, as if it was an assignment from his editor: ‘Get me the skinny on Robert Ford - I want the whole thing, why he really shot Jesse, what’s he doing now, and the girl. There must have been a girl…I want tragedy, and lots of it.’

And those endless newspaper headlines, one of the few films where they, and the intros, actually read as if they were written by a real hack.

by: Livius

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 09:29:57 +0000

True, John Ireland is a bit wooden here but I thought that only served to emphasise his character’s naivity and foolishness. Having said that, Casey Affleck’s recent performance does completely overshadow it.

As for the theatre scenes, they were much more effective here than those in ‘The Return of Frank James’, weren’t they?

by: clydefro

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 05:01:09 +0000

Being a Fuller apologist clouds my opinion of this a little, but I do think it’s a solid film (though I’d agree with your assessment of it being minor). I appreciated it even more after seeing the Dominik film and noticing a couple of similarities (the ballad number, but also the post-shooting theatrical performances). Casey Affleck ruined any appreciation I had for John Ireland here, but I’d maintain it’s the best of the bunch in terms of classic-era Jesse James-related movies.