The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

[Tom Lowe]

He posts here, but only from time to time, so he might not see this. You can probably find him in the member directory and PM him a question. He's very nice and always responds.

 

tom

[Serge Teulon]

He posts here, but only from time to time, so he might not see this. You can probably find him in the member directory and PM him a question. He's very nice and always responds.

 

tom

 

 

Cheers Tom!

 

S

[J. Søren Viuf]

I have a question regarding the colors of the DVD case.

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/images/711926.jpg

 

It seems to have a deep blue sky then graduates to a sepia in the lower sky and into the wheat fields with a mild vignette. Have tried (unsuccessfully) to replicate it in photoshop, but am wondering if it was done in camera or in post.

 

Also, any ideas what the names of those colors might be? Obviously, it's not one single color, but an approximation would be helpful, just to get an idea....

 

I really like the effect, but could use some help in achieving it. I've also noticed that these darker, bolder colors are being used a lot recently in advertisements and covers (new fad apparently)

 

Thanks

 

J. Soren Viuf

www.jsviuf.com

[frederico parreira]

hey

 

first post on this forum.

 

this is probably the film i most liked in this last months. liked it even more than 'there will be blood' (didnt like 'no country for old men').

here in Portugal, the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford was in almost every theatres, and even with brad pitt playing, it had almost no people watching it. and those who did weren´t expecting that kind of movie, so i think that helped it's bad performance.

 

fred

[monday sunnlinn]

i was expecting to be restless watching this from what i had heard about it's length, but it flew right by, if anything the story of the Fords after the assignation could've been extended. but this is coming from someone who would happily watch the entire uncut version of Dune repeatedly...i guess if you didn't like the slow pace, you probably were more into Kiss than Pink Floyd. and there's no judgement in that statement, everyone has there own way about them and there own kinds of entertainment. luckily we live in a world where everyone can find something they like...

 

there's not much to say about the look that hasn't been said. who isn't blown away by Roger Deakins? i recently just got my letus extreme dialed in (don't laugh) and was encouraged by the graininess in the look of this film...probably serendipity on the part of netflix, sending this movie to me just in time to take a break from 2 solid days of analyzing all the test footage i just shot...now i just have to concentrate on period pieces and 'old timey' type scenes...

 

LOL!

[Kevin Jones]

I've been trying to finish this movie for weeks. Not that I dont dig slow or long movies, I actually love them (Magnolia is one of my favs), but something would always come up and I would have to leave the room.

 

But I saw it complete last night and I'm still awake thinking about it. Everything clicked for me. And Deakins is, well Deakins.

 

Racing thoughts right now, so I don't quite know how to put it all down here. All I can say is "wow."

 

Movies like this make me want to be just as creative, if not push to be more creative. To me, that's what makes a timeless and amazing film.

[Thomas James]

Is it really true that Jesse James was a Robin Hood that stole from the rich and gave to the poor?

[Freya Black]

It is no surprise to me that this film lacked mass appeal. Most modern theatergoers are accustomed to movies that deliver instant gratification and seat-of-your-pants sound and special effects. This film, thankfully, didn't resort to such tactics, nor did it need to.

 

One of my favorites films of the season, so far.

 

I hope some of the things that I may hint at in the following posting don't upset anyone too much. If they do then please don't shoot me I'm only the piano player.

 

I don't know exactly why Jesse James did so badly at the theatres, but I know certain things about it, so I can speculate a little. The film was originally supposed to be released in 2006, however Warner Brothers didn't like the original edit so the film was entirely re-cut. Warner Bros wanted more action feeling the film lacked mass appeal. The film then went to test screenings where it received mixed reactions. Audiences seemed somewhat critical of the film while at the same time saying things like the acting was the best of Pitt and Affleck's careers. The actual numbers for the test screenings seemed low however, confirming what warner brothers thought of the film. See the 12 monkeys documentary for more information about the kind of questions are asked in test screenings. ;)

 

I understand casablanca did very badly in test screenings too.

 

Then it was time to release the film. My guess is there wasn't a lot of effort put into marketing it as warner brothers already knew this film wouldn't be succesful so they didn't waste money on it.

 

On top of this, it wasn't entirely a conventional studio picture in that it was partly funded independently. The film was more like a co-production, so WB didn't have that high a stake in it.

 

Finally lets look at what is perhaps the core reason at the lack of success of the film.

 

Someone compared the film to "There will be Blood". This is a good comparison. There will be blood was released by Paramount. It opened on 885 screens. The assasination of Jesse James opened on... 5 screens. Not sure off the top of my head what percentage 5 is compared to 885, but obviously well...

 

At it;s widest release "The assassination..." was placed onto 301 screens whereas paramount decided to place "There will be blood" on 1,620 screens.

 

To give you some idea of what that means in real terms, the new woody allen film presently in theatres "Whatever works", was released onto 9 theatres and at it's widest was 353 theatres. That might be considered doing quite well for the small independant feature that it is. The much hated and critically panned fox studio movie "I love Beth Cooper", opened last weekend on 1,858 screens and was placed at no 7 in the box office. Alledgedly the production budget for the latter was $18 million and in it's opening weekend it appears to have taken nearly half of that. I expect takings will plummet quite quickly on the bad response it seems to be getting, so I guess it remains to be seen if it will cover its advertising and print costs (That does mean 1,858 prints!) however I'm sure Beth Cooper willl do much better far more quickly than Mr Allens film.

 

The actual theatregoers only get to pick from whats on the menu and some of the dishes they may be a little reluctant to try having never heard about them To be fair as well, it might be easier to sell people chips as they have had chips before and they know that they usually like them, so even if they heard the curry was great they might still go with what they know.

 

On the upside, my understanding is that ""the assasination..." did very well on DVD, opening in the top 10 of releases and being very widely available. It also received quite a good critical response.

 

I could say a lot more about how the movie industry really works but thats probably enough for now.

 

love

 

Freya

[Freya Black]

Is it really true that Jesse James was a Robin Hood that stole from the rich and gave to the poor?

 

heh heh! Is it really true that Robin Hood was a Robin Hood who stole from the rich and gave to the poor! ;)

 

love

 

Freya

[Thomas James]

I found it interesting that my inlaws who are from Texas are absolutely convinced that Jesse James was indeed like Robin Hood who stole from the rich and gave to the poor.

 

I was able to find one story on the internet that claims that Jesse James stopped at a widows house for dinner and when Jesse asked her why she was so sad, the widow told Jesse that after her husband died she could no longer afford to make mortgage payments on her farm and that a banker was going to arrive shortly to foreclose on the property. Jesse James then lent the widow $800 on the condition that she use the money to pay off the mortgage but he insisted that the widow obtain a reciept as proof of her payment. The banker then arrived at the home of the widow, collected the $800 and as soon as the banker was outside of the town Jesse robbed the banker and got his $800 back.

 

Of course none of this Robin Hood stuff ever gets to Hollywood because the right wing bankers who finance movies believe that the poor deserve to have their houses foreclosed on because they lied on thier mortgages applications so the last thing the bankers need is to finance a movie about heroe who defends the rights of the poor widows.

[Ruairi Robinson]

Of course none of this Robin Hood stuff ever gets to Hollywood because the right wing bankers who finance movies believe that the poor deserve to have their houses foreclosed on because they lied on thier mortgages applications so the last thing the bankers need is to finance a movie about heroe who defends the rights of the poor widows.

 

Huh? You think the content of a film by Andrew Dominik was dictated by BANKERS?

 

You are off yer rocker mate.

 

R.

[Leo Anthony Vale]

Is it really true that Jesse James was a Robin Hood that stole from the rich and gave to the poor?

 

Of course not, he was a pro-slavery bushwhacker. He murdered pro-union civilians and scalped dead Union soldiers.

 

he was a hero to ex-Confederates and wore KKK robes when he robbed his first train.

 

More of a Sawney Beane than a Robin Hood.

[Aditya Vashisht]

Had I been a judge at The Academy Awards, I would have favored this movie over 'There Will Be Blood' for Best Cinematography.

[Thomas James]

First of all the Union also had a form of involuntary servitude which was called the military draft. Of course Jessie just like Robin Hood wore a hood when he robbed trains so as to disguise his identity. There is a lot of evidence to a Robin Hood mythology concerning Jessie James however every since the 1950's Hollywood has stopped making movies depicting Jessie James as America's Robin Hood.

[Brad Webb]

I just watched this on Blu-Ray, holy smokes. I think the opening train scene is probably Deakins' best work. How did this NOT win Best Cinematography. There Will Be Blood was great, but this movie just looked beautiful. The movie itself was Ok, a little slow I felt, and I agree with many of the previous posts, it was very Malick influenced.