Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 1, 2019 15:51:25 GMT -8
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert FordI started this movie last night on The Roku Channel and got about halfway through. When I went back to finish it today, it wasn’t there anymore. But I found it interesting enough that I wanted to finish it so I rented it. Brad Pitt plays the obvious psychopath, Jesse James. Casey Affleck plays Robert Ford. The rest of the James gang and surrounding characters are all excellently played. This isn’t a heist film, it’s a Western. And it’s really more of a psychological drama than a Western. The tension is always in the air as to when Jesse is going to wig out again. One reviewer captures the essence of it “Pretty photograph of a nightmare.” This fellow has a good way with words. This film does have a rather deliberate pace so it’s not meant for those with any kind of attention deficit disorder.
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Post by timothylane on Dec 1, 2019 16:13:34 GMT -8
Ah, yes, Robert Ford, "the dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard". "He lived in Jesse's house, and he ate of Jesse's food, and now he's laid Jesse James in his grave." Traditional ballardry was more sympathetic to the James brothers than they deserved. (Frank James surrendered and was tried for his crimes, but acquitted. One of his former commanders, Jo Shelby, was a character witness at the trial, though I'm not sure whichever railroad he worked for appreciated that.)
Incidentally, I read a story many, many years ago -- it may have been by Robert Bloch, but I'm not sure -- about a boy who liked to play as Al Capone and was given the opportunity to see his idol in operation at the St. Valentine's Day massacre (though Capone himself actually wouldn't have been there). He manages to get back despite being shot at, and learns that violent thugs aren't worthy of admiration. His father got a laugh at finding the bullets, having had a similar experience when he decided to see his idol -- Wyatt Earp -- in action, presumably at the OK Corral.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 1, 2019 19:38:14 GMT -8
In the movie, Ford kills James because he fears for his life. James has been picking off his old crew one at a time. Robert Ford killed James’ cousin (self-defense) and they were all trying to hide this.
It’s a strange movie to try to describe. Ford wasn’t exactly hero-worshipping James. He seemed to hero-worship the idea of James more than the reality. Since the age of 13, he became fascinated with the legend of Jesse James. He had a bunch of Jesse James pulp fiction novels in a shoe box under his bed, even at the age of 19.
I don’t know what the reality is, but this seemed to be something the movie flubbed. Or else Robert Ford was kind of an obtuse creep. But there’s no rapport between them. There isn’t even an attempt at it.
The overriding feeling you get is that Ford simply wanted to be famous.
I still think the movie works well even though it’s a little different. It has an interest ending showing the life of Robert Ford post-assassination. He’s still a little creepy and more than a little pathetic.
It’s a good performance by Affleck. I don’t think anyone really knows what went down. But “coward” is not what occurs to me when describing Ford. He just seemed to be a groupie who got in over his head and then tried to profit off his notoriety.
Jesse James has a family. But there is little connection there, showing James as a human being. Yes, he picks up his kid and even plays with him. But it’s thin. The one moment where a bit of humanity sneaks through (and one can rightly suppose that Jesse James is long past being human), James gives Ford a shiny new gun as way of apologizing for being so hard on him of late.
We don’t really know what to make of any of this. James at this point has stopped being human and is more like a malevolent force of nature. That’s one of the problems of the movie. There isn’t much humanity in it. And there is no honor among thieves. Ultimately everything you see means nothing because you know all is a lie and all are heading for perdition.
That’s also part of the draw. This is not the awful “Bonnie and Clyde.” Nothing is romanticized in this one.
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Post by timothylane on Dec 1, 2019 20:29:29 GMT -8
I suppose Ford was called a coward because he shot Jesse James in the back. It's possible that the balladeer(s) was actually in love with the image of Jesse James, much as the movie portrays Ford as being. The wikipedia article on Ford shows no indication that James was hunting down his gang, but does say he was suspicious of the Fords (both of whom were living with him) when he heard about the Liddil confession because they hadn't told him about it. But he still laid his guns down and turned his back to them.
In addition to Bonnie and Clyde, there was an earlier movie, The Bonnie Parker Story, which we happened on one day while visiting relatives down in Sweeden, Kentucky. It makes Bonnie more the tough criminal than Clyde, which was probably the opposite of the truth. She was more a crime groupie who wanted a life of adventure, not an active criminal herself.
But who knows the truth of any such people? In her autobiographical poem, Bonnie predicted that they would eventually "go down together", as indeed they did, though she was wrong that they would be buried "side by side". I don't think they even ended up in the same cemetery. (Nor did a rose grow from one grave and a brier from the other, to be entwined in a love knot, as in "Barbara Allen".)
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 2, 2019 9:08:32 GMT -8
Probably so. But it’s funny how the outlaw who killed so many innocent people is remembered with more fondness than the man who killed him. Granted, Robert Ford was not a commendable person either. He road with Jesse James for a time.
Going into this movie, there was never a thought that I was going to see a piece of unvarnished history. As a movie, it was interesting. But I have no illusions that it was anything but an interpretation, almost “art house.” And I have no desire to delve further into the disreputable characters of any and all involved. But maybe it was accurate. Who knows?
“Crime groupie.” That’s a wonderful way of putting it. And that is kinda-sorta how Robert Ford is portrayed. But he’s tough to figure out. They’re all a bunch of reprobates.
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Post by timothylane on Dec 2, 2019 9:37:54 GMT -8
The Jameses were robbing the rich, especially rich Yankees, and in the Gilded Age/Reconstruction South, that was popular. He got quite a Robin Hood reputation, though without actually doing that "giving to the poor" part. (On the other hand, when the gang robbed trains, they generally didn't rob the passengers, only the large sums of money in their safes. This is quite unlike Bonnie and Clyde, who mostly robbed mom-and-pop stores until late in their career.)
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 2, 2019 15:51:05 GMT -8
We'd need to do an inventory of the "deserving" victims of Jesse James. Near the end of the movie, it said that when Bob Ford was feeling down he'd go visit one of the victims of the James gang and tell them he killed Jesse James. I don't think the movie mentioned what kind of a response he got.
But if you personalized the victims (such as with abortion...ultrasound), it's much harder to root for the bad guys as some sore of idyllic Robin Hood. But then people tend to be an unthinking mob and is exactly why "democracy" is such a bad idea.
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Post by timothylane on Dec 2, 2019 16:28:21 GMT -8
This is an interesting point. The bootleggers mostly killed each other, though other people could easily get caught up in a firefight. (The Northsiders -- I think this was while Bugs Moran was in control -- once opened up on a Cicero restaurant Capone was in. They didn't get him, but they may have gotten some bystanders.) On the other hand, most robbers were at least ready and willing to kill if need be, some (such as Baby Face Nelson) more so than others.
The Jameses got their start in the Missouri guerrilla fighting of the War of the Rebellion, and are believed to have taken part in the Centralia Massacre. They at least had no hesitation in killing. There were at least 2 citizens killed during the attempted holdup in the Northfield raid, and others on other occasions. Bob Dalton killed 3 men with his first 3 shots in their final raid on Coffeyville, and his fourth hit a man in the head. Then he started getting hit and his accuracy collapsed.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 2, 2019 18:36:26 GMT -8
If one has gone through the Civil War, it probably takes just a nudge for many into violent lawlessness. Life was so extremely cheap on the battlefield with morals having long ago blown into the wind. So what's a couple of dead bank tellers in the scheme of things?
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