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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford


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Has anyone had a chance to check it out at the Toronto film fest? I've been waiting for this film for over two years now. I saw this newer trailer recently and its one of the best trailers I?ve seen in a long time.

 

http://movies.aol.com/movie/the-assassinat...ford/26180/main

 

Roger Deakins has 3 movies coming out in the next three months (No Country for Old Men, and In the Valley of Elah). Judging from the past, Roger rarely does a film with bad story. I'm not one for predictions, but I think he's due for an Oscar.

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This will probably win the oscar, hands down. Obviously the biggest inspiration is Days of Heaven, but I also see some Conrad Hall/Road to Perdition in there.

 

One odd thing: What was with that shot of Pitt's hands floating over the wheat?.... That was a direct - and I mean EXACT - copy of the same shot from Gladiator, even down the ring on his finger. Is that supposed to be a "homage"?

 

In any case, this is likely to not only win the cinematography Oscar, but probably a few other categories as well. Pitt took top acting honors for it at Venice.

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I saw it tonight at the New York Premiere.

 

Some of the most beautiful imagery I've seen since The New World, if not before that...

 

Really an extremely inspired work. Roger Deakins is a master beyond words, and it's quite evident in this film.

 

Rocked my world, honestly. I'm a bit speechless. Great film, too...

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dude. Your making me drool.

 

Haha, itll be out soon enough. :)

 

This tailer looks amazing. Does anyone know what the deal is with that blurry vignetting look that is in some of those shots? Hopefully there will be some kind of article about it. Deakins is the man.

 

It was used predominanty for flashbacks/narrated storytelling moments. I think they just did it subtely with filters, the enhanced it in the DI. It looked like they did a lot in post, with the colors especially.

 

But it helped the film, in my opinion.

 

EDIT to say: They have articles/Q+A with him in October's American Cine. I will be reading it, haha. :)

Edited by Gus Sacks
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I saw it tonight at the New York Premiere.

 

Some of the most beautiful imagery I've seen since The New World, if not before that...

 

Really an extremely inspired work. Roger Deakins is a master beyond words, and it's quite evident in this film.

 

Rocked my world, honestly. I'm a bit speechless. Great film, too...

 

Oh man, your post just got me so stoked. I CANNOT WAIT for this.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Saw it tonight at a screening.

 

Cinematography = beautiful, stunning, everything one expects of Deakins.

Performances = A great cast with some great performances, but it needs MORE Sam Shepard, and MORE Zooey Deschanel!

Story = It held my attention, and the relationship between James and Ford is really interesting, uncomfortable and sometimes a little creepy.

 

With that out of the way, the pacing and the ending of the film is its only downfall. It seems to dwell on facets and dynamics of "the gang" a bit too much, taking away from the Ford & James relationship. And the ending to the film was quite horrible.

 

(SEMI-SPOILER)

 

 

It was the type of situation where, we had invested so much in Ford's story, that the filmmakers had to find some way of summarizing his years following the assassination while still giving it the detail and attention it deserves. But the entire theatre was grumbling with each cut to a new chapter in Ford's life, HOPING that the film would just end!

 

Still, I would like to see Deakins get a nomination. It seems in his past few films he's really liked the look of having a hot key, something you see a lot of in the trailers for his upcoming Coen Bros. film as well.

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Apparently the director was a second-unit director on Malick's The New World. It makes me wonder exactly which shots he was responsible for? Many of my favorite shots from The New World were cutaways/2nd-unit- stuff.

Edited by Tom Lowe
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Apparently the director was a second-unit director on Malick's The New World. It makes me wonder exactly which shots he was responsible for? Many of my favorite shots from The New World were cutaways/2nd-unit- stuff.

 

I agree, I loved the 2nd-unit/cutaway stuff in the New World. There were a ton of shots that were great, but one in particular that stood out was a wide shot of the fort and the bay during the winter, with snow on the ground and the wind blowing over the water. I'd love to have that framed and hanging on my wall at home (among many others).

 

Anyway, hearing this little tidbit makes me really excited to see this film!

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Epic. Deakins kills. The first 45 minutes has some of the exceedingly beautiful cinematography (the rest was really good too). A little self-indulgent but it fits with the story in my opinion. After I getting out of the theater I thought about it for a while and although it was very Malick-esq I found it quite similar to the Godfather films as well. Not as completely captivating in opinion my but still it's a film primarily about relationships (trust is a big issue) and although it doesn?t get violent that often when it does... brutal. That's my two cents, I could go on and on... maybe later.

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Apparently the director was a second-unit director on Malick's The New World. It makes me wonder exactly which shots he was responsible for? Many of my favorite shots from The New World were cutaways/2nd-unit- stuff.

 

 

Eh ? I don't think so. Where'd you hear that ? It's not listed on IMDB either. (not that it's always right)

 

Dominick is a New Zealand born Australian whose previous film was Chopper. An Australian film that literally launched a guy called...Eric Banna. Up until chopper, Eric Bana was a stand up / TV comic.

 

Chopper changed everything. I still think it's Eric's best ever work as an actor. If you havn'e seen it it's really worth a look.

 

Assassination of Jesse James is Andrew's second film. Not a bad path really is it......

 

jb

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Haha, itll be out soon enough. :)

It was used predominanty for flashbacks/narrated storytelling moments. I think they just did it subtely with filters, the enhanced it in the DI. It looked like they did a lot in post, with the colors especially.

 

Here's how he did it from the man himself...

 

 

The 'effects' in "Jesse James" were done in camera. We used some tricks that Otto Nementz hepled us with. One was to shoot through a wide angle element with a macro focus lens and the other - and I think more effective trick - was to take the front element off some old wide angle lenses. Both gave us the fringing you noticed and I think created an effect that was organic to the shot and not something that feels imposed. It has a wonderful effect on highlights as in the saloon or when looking at a sky through trees.

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Eh ? I don't think so. Where'd you hear that ? It's not listed on IMDB either. (not that it's always right)

 

I read it in several articles. Here's one:

 

Dominik demonstrates all he learned on his stint a few years ago as a second-unit director for "The New World," Terrence Malick's retelling of the John Smith-Pocahontas relationship. Malick displaced the story of the civilized world onto that love affair, and the movie was a wonder, a perfect balance of moral sadness and aesthetic exploration. Ponderousness hung over the movie, just as it did in Malick's ecology's-eye-view of World War II, "The Thin Red Line." Dominik doesn't quite have Malick's control of the weather. His movie is mostly ponderous, despite the unceasingly beautiful imagery (the great Roger Deakins did the cinematography; Curtiss Clayton and Dylan Tichenor edited the film).

 

http://www.boston.com/movies/display?displ...vie&id=8491

 

Malick is sort of notorious for the informality of people coming and going from his sets.

Edited by Tom Lowe
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Can he be nominated for both Jesse James and No Country?

 

Does he have to decide one film to "submit" does anyone know...

 

I think he'll get the ASC (well, depends there is still a lot of great stuff coming out... I haven't seen "Lust, Cation" yet), but I fear he'll be ignored by the oscars for a sixth time... we'll see ; too early still.

 

**SPOILER**

 

I loved Jesse James and actually thought the ending was quite successful ; maybe because I didn't know much about JJ or Robert Ford, didn't realize how BIG of a person, I loved the bit about his photograph being displayed along the pyramids of egypt and all the other "wonders of the world" -- has anyone seen the Samuel Fuller film of the same subject?

 

The film I'm looking forward to the most of anything coming out is No Country for Old Men.

 

He is certainly a Master's Master.

 

Just my opinion.

 

-felipe.

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Sure, it's possible to be nominated for different movies -- Robert Surtees may have been the last example of that (unless someone remembers a more recent example).

 

Surtees was nominated for two films, twice:

1968: "The Graduate" and "Doctor Doolittle" (Burnett Guffey won for "Bonnie and Clyde")

1972: "Last Picture Show" and "Summer of '42" (Ozzie Morris won for "Fiddler on the Roof")

 

But that is pretty unusual.

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I agree, I loved the 2nd-unit/cutaway stuff in the New World. There were a ton of shots that were great, but one in particular that stood out was a wide shot of the fort and the bay during the winter, with snow on the ground and the wind blowing over the water. I'd love to have that framed and hanging on my wall at home (among many others).

 

Anyway, hearing this little tidbit makes me really excited to see this film!

 

I don't understand where this infomation came from. Andy Cheng was 2nd unit director and stunt crd. on New World where he directed the fighting scenes but he had little or nothing to do with the types of shots you listed above. Many B-roll shots were taken after the film had wrapped principle and were not done by Lubezki, nor was a director present.

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I don't understand where this information came from. Andy Cheng was 2nd unit director and stunt crd. on New World where he directed the fighting scenes but he had little or nothing to do with the types of shots you listed above. Many B-roll shots were taken after the film had wrapped principle and were not done by Lubezki, nor was a director present.

 

Again, numerous articles, one of which I linked to from the Boston Globe, claim Dominik shot at least some 2nd unit on The New World. I have no firsthand knowledge of this; I'm just going by what the press is saying.

 

Do you have firsthand knowledge of the shoot? Did Terry himself shoot a lot of those cutaways after principle photography? If not, who shot them?

Edited by Tom Lowe
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