The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Long title, I know.

First off, I just want to say that I'm a huge Jesse James fan. I've visted his various homes he's lived in, one of the banks he robbed on Liberty MO, his grave, hell, I even have a Jesse James t-shirt!

When I went in, I immediately thought to myself "well, this is Hollywood, so I can't be expecting anything too accurate," as I began watching.

I was wrong.

Sure, there were some things that weren't perfect (like the fact that MO isn't a bunch of rolling flat land and prairie) but I could live with it. I was shocked to find how amazing this movie was. It had this artistic flare that I was not expecting, which was nice. The cinematography was beautiful, on a Days of Heaven type of level.

The casting was perfect. I thought that the fact that Brad Pitt was in it was going to bother me because he's so well known. He completely embodied the character so well that he convinced me that he was Jesse James. And of course, we have Sam Rockwell, who can't not be amazing.

Casey Affleck was the real scene-stealer however. He added so much depth and pity towards a person who is usually looked at as a villian. The filmmakers really got into his head, showed that he didn't know what he was getting himself into until it was too late.

One thing I noticed while I was watching this was that I kept switching sides between the two main characters. At the end, however, I realized that both characters were at fault and left it at that.

Overall, amazing film, not perfect, but damn near close to it.

8/10