Film Journal — 1/31/10
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
There are several obvious criticisms to be leveled at Andrew Dominik’s film about the demise of Jesse James. The first is its length, which is excessive at just a hair over 150 minutes. The second would be its pacing, which is deliberate and sometimes stilted — with a coda that could wear on some viewers. The last might be the affectation of the film: dialogue is think and stagey, and characterizations are heavily wrought. But each of these critiques, while not necessarily false, don’t do justice to a film that in my mind stands among the best revisionist Westerns of all time.
Conceived as a History Channel narrative documentary on steroids, “Assassination” paints a picture of the West (in this case, really the Midwest) that we don’t see very often. It’s bleak, it’s isolated, and at times it can feel almost uninhabitable. The two key elements that make this a must for Western fans are Dominik’s use of space — every shot is either a sparse interior or a vast, open exterior — and the formation and recalibration of history and legend. The latter is really the film’s true aim: to undercut the popular conception of James as robber-hero, only to recreate the legend from a new reality centered on his death. In this way the film is really about the history of the West and the role that legend had in its creation and in its continued cultural importance.
Final score:5 out of 5
The Seventh Seal and Hour of the Wolf
In preparing for this week’s BGH podcast — where we discussed Ingmar Bergman’s “Hour of the Wolf” — I took the opportunity to rectify a horrid omission from my personal film library, and thus I sat down to watch “The Seventh Seal.” Perhaps the finest thing I can say for the film is that despite more than 50 years and parodies to the point of near cultural irrelevancy, I still found “Seal” to be among the finest film viewing experiences I’ve ever had. A lot of my personal reaction probably has to do with the subject matter, which resonated a great deal with me and meshed with other texts I’ve been exploring recently. But it’s also important not to downplay the sheer beauty of the film.
“Hour of the Wolf” was a far less engaging experience, but that is not to say that it was not a terrific film in its own right. Check out the BGH podcast (episode 105, I believe) for more complete thoughts, but what struck me more than anything while watching this film was the impact that it must have had on filmmakers like David Lynch, David Cronenberg, and others. It seems to occupy a similar space as Polanski’s “Repulsion,” which was a few years earlier than “Wolf” as well as “Rosemary’s Baby,” which was released the same year. It may not carry the same weight as “Seal,” but it’s a tremendous filmmaking effort nonetheless.
Final score, Seal: 5 out of 5
Final score, Wolf: 4 out of 5
