Post by drystyx on Nov 23, 2017 16:53:17 GMT
Just saw the movie. It had hits and misses.
This Western tried to make two points with the Jesse James-Robert Ford History as the vehicle.
The first point succeeded. Older History books, which have more credibility, tell of Jesse being the brother more likely to kill immediately, while Frank would mull and determine, and Jesse being more likely to relent, while Frank wanted to judge and play God.
Here, it's reversed. Jesse is the one who wants to sit and judge and play God. And probably both brothers did this a lot.
That takes us to the first point. The animal instinct of removing the weakest of the tribe has been poorly copied by humans. Whether humans ever were good at it is debatable, but certainly the modern human, while still savage, is the poorest judge of fellow beings and their abilities. Case in point. The last presidential election in the U.S. saw two semi finalists that were the least in every area of their species, the least in strength, in appearance, in inspiration, in wit, in everything. Just a culmination of human lack of instincts.
The Jesse of this movie is a depiction of that. He sits and judges and plays God, never judging correctly. His instincts are not of an animal, but of complete demonic possession.
Pitt's Jesse has zero natural motivation. He tries to concoct it, with no inspiration, and that's the way many people are in civilization. We hear of the people with a Jesus complex, but since it's easier to be flawed and selfish, there are many more who believe they're a devil or anti Christ. Infinitely more. I've met enough of them, enough people who are as demon possessed as the Jesse of this movie.
Meanwhile, Ford is a hero worshiping kid, who wants to be like Jesse, but Jesse plays God and immediately decides to eliminate Robert Ford, as he does many others. He sadistically tries to make Robert's brother seem okay to him, to drive the sadistic pleasure in further. However, Jesse does this to so many people, that he misses his chance to kill Robert Ford. In fact, Jesse is so caught up in his "super demon" role, he stupidly turns his back on the victim who fights for survival.
That parts works.
However, the second point comes at the end. For some reason, the director=writer team seem to think Jesse was a winner because his rotten corpse is scoffed at by those glad to see his evil gone for good. Robert doesn't have this problem, yet the director acts as if this is a win for Jesse. It can only be seen that way by the very human sheep who have lost all their animal instincts.
Hits and misses. 5/10