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Back in 2007, the film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford made my initial top ten list with its spectacle and grandeur. It was my introduction into the myth and legend of James as well as Ford, a name I was not familiar with until that point. The film was a mood piece that centered on Ford’s inclusion into the posse of robbers to the inevitable incident of the title, showing his lack of self-worth and spiteful heart towards the man he idolized who looked down on him as a strange wildcard. Little did I know that back in 1949, Samuel Fuller brought to the screen his own version of the tale with I Shot Jesse James. There is some overlap in plot, mainly the end of Assassination with the start of I Shot, but the direction itself is completely different. In Fuller’s film, Robert Ford isn’t out for retribution or a false sense of honor; instead he is after a freedom from jail time so as to marry the woman he loves. His cowardice is in the necessity of love—the feeling of such being stronger with sweetheart Cynthy than with best friend James.

I am kind of shocked at the film’s tagline: “The thrilling and colorful last days of America’s most fabulous outlaw”. Even the opening credits show that Jesse James is barely more than a cameo as he gets fourth billing. But then the star, John Ireland’s Ford, gets third billing, so who knows? Reed Hadley plays James as merely the catalyst for the journey that Bob Ford will take in trying to make his act of murder mean something. Basically asking for Ford to kill him, putting the very gun that does so into his hands, the relationship between these two men is an interesting one. As my friends made mention during our viewing, there are numerous instances that can be construed as homoerotic in nature. James asking Ford to scrub his back is one and him removing his gun belt with the words, “I feel naked without my weapon,” before getting on a chair, putting his rear-end right into the view of Ford, is another. I’m not necessarily sure that these moments are meant to be read that way; I believe we are seeing a man with complete trust in his friend, unafraid to turn his back due to his certainty in not being betrayed. We see a close up of James’ bare back during a bath not to show Ford aroused, but to see the glorious opportunity he is given to shoot him dead, get the pardon and reward, and go live happily ever after with Cynthy.

If only the world were that simple. The film is called I Shot Jesse James for a reason—it is about the man that did the deed and his inability to live with it. Having no regrets, at least admitted to at first, he tries to tell himself that he did it for love. Of course, the act of betrayal and cowardice in shooting this infamous legend in the back only makes the woman he loves turn against him as she sees whom he really is, fearing him now more than loving him. By killing for her, he has in fact transferred the crime, and she does not want to live with that guilt. This is just the beginning of Ford’s struggles, however. Not only does he start to lose Cynthy, played effectively by the quite beautiful Barbara Britton, but he also becomes a target for James’ brother Frank looking to avenge the murder, as well as every gun-toting citizen looking to become famous. He is a marked man, yet not a coward despite the song now being sung about him in saloons across America, (shown in a scene that brought images of Nick Cave playing the guitar in Assassination). He refuses to change his name and will not back down from any challenge, even going so far as to try his hand in the theatre, reenacting his own crime for the public. Needing money to try and win back Cynthy, Ford moves to Colorado to strike it rich in the silver boom, and that is where the bulk of the film takes place.

While in Colorado, Ford crosses paths with a familiar face from the past in John Kelley. Preston Foster plays this role with a strong moral center, as though he could be a sheriff if he so desired. And, go figure, he is soon propositioned to become the Marshal of Creede later on. What the time in Colorado really displays, though, is how Ford copes with what he has done while setting down roots to start fresh. Ireland plays him with a huge chip on his shoulder and a very short fuse. Yet the character never shows a lack of control in differentiating between right and wrong. He understands the creed of being an outlaw because he understands the law. If an unarmed man is to be shot during a fight, it is his fault for not bringing a gun, but if an unarmed, just got rich, drunk is hiding under a table, well you better not take a shot. Ford knows the rules and he knows the life. He very well could have succeeded James if not for his one lapse of judgment. No matter how righteous he lived before or could live after, it took just one moment to prove the opposite.

The film, then, becomes a sort of karmic retribution for the man who shot Jesse James. It also shows the weight in which the concept of celebrity held even back in 1882. Here was the most wanted criminal in the country, yet, when he is killed, all the people can do is lambaste the man who did it. Not only that, but then the murderer himself becomes just as famous for his lack of courage, no matter what his reasons might have been. Fuller gets his actors to deliver very real portrayals, especially with Ireland and Foster. These are the epitomes of the Western genre’s black hat and white hat roles. The director even allows for—in what I would say is the best sequence in the film—a showdown at the end. Framing Foster’s Kelley in the curved top of the saloon door from the outside, we track him into the road’s foreground to see Ireland’s Ford enter the frame far in the background. Here is where we finally see whether he truly is a coward or just misunderstood and unable to leave that one incident behind him, no matter how hard he tries.

I Shot Jesse James 7/10

http://jaredmobarakreviews.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/i-shot-jesse-james/

Fuller’s first feature as a director (after a long career as a screenwriter/scriptdoctor) is already a pretty special film. The Fuller style – powerful close-ups, bold action(including a punch straight into the camera leading Godard to dub Sam – KINO-FIST) and a strong rhythm in the cutting. The tone of the film is unusual, it’s very elegiac and melancholy missing the trademark Fuller sense of humour. John Ireland gives a great performance in his only leading role as Robert Ford who shot Jesse James for the money and has to live all his life with the burden of killing the man he loved. Of the three Fuller Westerns, this is the most conventional and straightforward but it’s a great film nevertheless.

This a very sombre and emotionally gritty film. At first glance one might ask; Where is my action packed cowboy movie I expected? Not here. The intense action is internalized by the characters. I was struck by a feeling of realism that is completely lacking in many cowboy/western movie I have seen excluding a select few like Jeremiah Johnson, The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, or Barbarosa. Basically no heroics here. Just a man pushed into a corner and having to make a snap decision which ultimately destroys everything he believes in. Perhaps we have all made decisions that we later regretted and only made things worse instead of better. I do agree that the title sequence was a bit misleading as to the feel of the movie. Interesting but too ‘Will Rogers’ like.

I wasn’t so sure about this one after the first 30 minutes…the lack of characterization, the overwhelming use of newspaper slides, and the simplicity of its narrative trajectory had me anticipating a dull payoff…then came the second half. Maybe i’m crazy, but I loved it. Kelly’s character came to life, Robert’s descent into insanity was subtly handled, and the tense set up of the love triangle amounted to an impressive finale.

The scene in the bar where the guitar players’ strumming the song about Robert Ford the coward, sweat rolling down his face, with Ford staring straight in his eyes…beautiful.

An impressive directorial debut for Samuel Fuller, “I Shot Jesse James” exudes an engrossing romanticism of the old west. The main theme of acting in accordance with violence and betrayal for the sake of love is adeptly handled by John Ireland; who portrays a character that acts as if love permits all. However, the moral of the tale is that morality cannot be forsaken in any instance, even in the face of love, or their will be disastrous consequences, both immaterial and material.

Exciting to see Fuller’s directorial debut. As somebody else comments, he wasn’t exactly an actor’s director, but at best, he makes the most of competent players to the point of taking poignant advantage of a performer’s limitations. The surprises here are in the fullness a skillful supporting cast lend to the secondary characters, and the realistic use of overlapping dialogue which much later became one of Robert Altman’s signatures.

Even in the very beginning of his directing career, pumping out sensational war films and B westerns on Poverty Row, Sam Fuller was an independent minded maverick, infusing his familiar assignments with peculiar framing, cutting, and close-ups, creating an economical mise-en-scene that made the films cheap but unusually original. Thus is the case with his first feature, “I Shot Jesse James”, a telling of the assassination of the famous outlaw with a sympathetic understanding of his killer’s motivations, psychological struggles, redemption, and eventual murder. The acting, from John Ireland as Robert Ford, to Reed Hadley as Jesse James, isn’t uniformly special, in fact, the few scenes between the two before Ford plugs him in the back are tinged with a kind of disturbing homo-erotic master/pupil aura that renders the quick assassination in the third reel out of place, even though we know it’s coming, but then Fuller was never known for guiding anything more than competent actors to competent performances, it’s all about his staging, precision camera movements and editing, and even in its earliest form, his style was exciting.

“After years of crime reporting, screenwriting, and authoring pulp novels, Samuel Fuller made his directorial debut…”

It shows. I find it highly appropriate that the first Fuller film I’ve seen is also the first he made. This film plays out just like a pulp novel. Romance, drama, gunslingin’. It’s highly entertaining. But fuller brings more here. There’s a sense of moral ambiguity rampant throughout, a seeming criticism of justice, and the blurring of the line between good and evil, all surrounding the titular event. Perhaps it’s more of a criticism of ‘law’ in the wild west, but I think there’s more here. Jesse James, a known criminal with a bounty on his head is killed and brought to justice. This was a ‘right’ think to happen, in terms of justice. He happened to be shot in the back by Bob Ford, his best friend. Now, in the eyes of 1880’s society, it turns from ‘right’ to ‘wrong.’ Bob Ford is vilified for being a traitor, and it torments him at every turn, until the very end, when justice is finally served (by the do-gooder Kelly, of course).

The film is black and white, but the content is far from it. I look forward to experiencing more Fuller.