the long, subdued, nearly action-free "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"

i think this was my favorite movie i saw in the theater in 2007

maybe the most heavy-handed film i saw in the theater in 2007

looking forward to seeing this on dvd in a month

i probably ruined it by hyping it, i think the reason i liked it so much was that i went in with few expectations

I loved it, by the end. Not just because of Zooey Deschanel's charming turn.

Andrew Dominik said he was more thinking about Barry Lyndon than Malick when he was making it.

if only those thoughts translated into anything onscreen.

No one saw 3:10 to Yuma? Not much more involving.

Whole less than sum of parts, for me. Great acting, cinematography, music, but it didn't really engage my sympathies or interest and I grew increasingly bored as it went on. And the LOTR III trick of extending what should have been a short coda into a whole extra chapter was especially frustrating.

(xp - i'm talkin about jesse james not 3.10 to yuma)

i thought the coda was the best part of the movie.

i want to see 3:10 to Yuma, just came out on dvd huh

And the LOTR III trick of extending what should have been a short coda into a whole extra chapter

This section was drastically shortened from the novel. Since the story is actually about Ford, doesn't really make sense.

Yeah, saw it last night. Russell Crowe is quite excellent; so is an unrecognizable Peter Fonda. I was surprised and gratified by the high body count. Mangold is no fun at shooting action sequences: they lack fluidity or continuity. The unsurprising surprise ending is a botch too.

No, I never saw the original.

(xpost)

i thought the coda was the best part of the movie.

you could be right; it was certainly necessary, and provided a refreshing counterpoint - but by that point i felt i'd been there long enough and god would you hurry up and finish already!

Keeping the coda and lopping 1/2 hour of the main movie would have made sense.

or just rescreening The King of Comedy

3:10 to Yuma was fun, but it doesn't seem like these movies have much in common besides being westerns? 3:10tY was an actiony trad western w/maybe better acting etc. than it needed.

morbs, do you actually have anything substantive to say about this movie other than that it's "heavy-handed"? i see upthread you use your standard trope of comparing the movie unfavorably to another from 50 years ago that has a vaguely similar theme, which is as retarded an argument as it always is

I grew increasingly interested as it went on, but there is no reason why it couldn't have been longer - and as you say about the coda is a lot more interesting than its running time suggests. Casey Affleck was terrific I thought, though partially due to looking enough like Ben in places for me to turn against him - making him thoroughly unsympathetic even when I started feeling for him.

Who'd want to be a woman in this picture though! (Clearly filming on the Weeds backlot)

self xpost, nevermind, who cares

xxp: yeah, but I don't write long things for ILX for obvious reasons persons. Eat it.

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/movie_review/the-assassination-of-jesse-james-by-the-coward-robert-ford.htm

i took the bait :(

or just read Manohla Dargis, ie, let's turn another psycho killer into Jesus.

Qu’est ce que c'est?

Unpopular opinion of the year: Casey was better in Gone Baby Gone.

Movie's as pretty as its lead actors, but ultimately hollow.

I second that afflecktion.

yeah, i don't know about that. there's at least a subtheme about pop culture and mass behavior, though i too am at least skeptical about how much they intended that to get over.

pretty decent movie, though. and i was maybe more impressed by pitt than affleck - where people just surprised that the bro could act?

where

i cant believe i didnt post on this thread. i liked this movie a lot....but, and this probably sets me apart from almost every other person ever, i kinda wish there was MORE narration from the ken burns guy and less acting and talking. i like the literary conceit, the sense of someone sitting down and telling you a story.

don't need a movie for that.

this is pretty fkn boring tbh

is that james carville? wtf.

The shamelessness with which this movie rips off Malick was infuriating.

I got "interviewed" for a local publication (more of a "complete the sentence" thing) and I said I could watch this repeatedly. What won't make print is that my girlfriend likes to fall asleep with a quiet movie on, and this one has been it for a long time. Not my favorite film, but it's really tranquil, even in the violence, with the exception of the scene where Pitt is railing on that kid for information.

this film is like the cinematic equivalent of that guy phosphorescent - all earnest and croaky and 'old timey'

this is pretty fkn boring tbh

OTM.

Also, fucking impossible to work out what anyone was saying half the time.

The shamelessness with which this movie rips off Malick was infuriating.

― Matt Armstrong, Monday, June 15, 2009 5:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I'm not sure in what universe ripping off Terrence Malick is a bad thing.

no? how about just mangling his tropes?

his tropes? i suppose they're both about societyazzawhole, but one's just about celebrity and the other's about life, the universe and everything, no?

ya what tropes and mangled how?

i wasn't NUTS about this movie but i kinda got into its slow groove

i like the narration too.

"Trope" doesn't mean what people think it means.

it means testicles

I loved this movie on first viewing, though I think it just caught me right when I was in the perfect mood for it. I watched it again with my wife and didn't love it quite as much but would still consider it one of my faves for 2007.

is it as dull as dead man?

yeah me too--i dug it a lot. casey affleck was surprisingly great and brad was ok, too

it's not as good as dead man

doesn't really have anything to do with it tho

sort of like cricket and baseball are entirely different sports

only, with movies

does not compute in the slightest but w/e

i talked this up enough that my 62 yr old mom is curious enough to go see it (and im shocked its still playing near her)

also im ttly taking out like 4 george v higgins books from my lib over the holidays

Eddie Coyle if you haven't already

only have seen the film, which is great obv

My friend and I thought Killing Them Softly was worth watching, if a little sketchy in its construction. The constant political dialogue was definitely trying to drill in the parallel between criminal economies but it was a little overwrought in that it was mostly an extended implication without really fleshing it out.

It was great to be at a film where people were grumbling about "next time /I/ get to pick the movie, blah blah" on the way out. Hadn't heard that in a while/

political notes the most interesting thing about KMS.

(also from all the Dem whining you'd think they were pissing while the W clips were on)

Gandolfini much less interesting here than in the Chase rock movie, so yeah I'll probably never watch The Sopranos.

Scoot McNairy giving one of the performances of the year was the most interesting thing about KMS. The second-most interesting thing was the notion that you would, indeed, bend over backward to side with Armond.

but I haven't, as he claims to think it was a very good film.

certainly no Cabin in the Woods

KTS btw, KMS will be the Roberta Flack biopic

Scoot's versatility will be put to the test in that one.

what's with the Scoot hard-on? he was fine, but it's an awfully familiar character type and he's no Elisha Cook Jr.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/business/media/a-fans-mission-resurrect-a-little-watched-movie.html?_r=0

Rad. I love this movie.

Garret Dillahunt's career shift from stuff like this and "Deadwood" to being the dad in "Raising Hope" is still so weird to me.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/terrence-malick-thought-it-was-too-slow-10-things-learned-from-the-revival-screening-of-the-assassination-of-jesse-james-by-the-coward-robert-ford-20131209?

interesting that he sez hes making 'Blonde' next from JCOs novel -- he tried to make it back a few yrs ago -http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2010/05/andrew-dominik-returns-with-marilyn.html

dominik sounds cool

Anyway, Dominik took the opportunity to say, bluntly, that he is “embarrassed by the stylization in 'Killing Them Softly.'”

otm

He should be embarrassed by some of the the stylization in this one too.

“Have you seen 'Bonnie & Clyde' lately?” Dominik interrupted, scrunching his face in disapproval. “Has some good editing in the end, I suppose...“

lol f u

bonnie & clyde sucks, hes right

only if you insist on long, subdued, and nearly action-free

my friend went to this, said dominik came across as a dick.

johnny crunch and hungry4ass otm re: killing them softly. i did actually worry when 'heroin' came on the soundtrack and also i thought 'the man comes around' was a dreadful choice for pitt's intro song (i think dominik's music library must consist entirely of other movie trailer songs) but overall it was a strong movie imo.

dominik is finally getting blonde off the ground, naturally for netflix

https://thefilmstage.com/news/andrew-dominik-begins-production-on-marilyn-monroe-biopic-blonde-as-full-cast-is-announced/

Based on JCO book?

yessir

"my friend went to this, said dominik came across as a dick.

― akm"

weird, I have no recollection of writing this or who this person may have been.

The Character Assassination of Andrew Dominik by the Coward akm

Killing Them Softly seems to have been getting some defense lately from people who don't want to be on the wrong side of the film's thuddingly obvious politics, so I finally watched it. I had put it off because I didn't want it to diminish my estimation of the source material, Cogan's Trade, which I consider a masterpiece of lowlife dialogue. I'm afraid it's so bad it might have done just that. I feel bad for ever criticizing Nicolas Winding-Refn or Zack Snyder for ever having some crass and dumb ideas because Dominik belongs in movie jail. Plenty of people have mocked the ubiquitous C-SPAN footage and the moronic music cues, but ripping off the use of "Love Letters" from Blue Velvet is particularly annoying.

I will say Ben Mendelsohn is great playing an all-time disgusting loser. James Gandolfini gave his character an even more sinister dimension than I remember him having in the novel. He used to complain about what a toll playing a dark character like Tony Soprano took on him, this role might have finished him off.

https://nypost.com/2022/02/11/marilyn-monroe-biopic-director-says-movie-will-be-nc-17-rated/

“It’s a demanding movie,” Dominik said. “If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the f–king audience’s problem. It’s not running for public office.”