The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

The best western about myth since ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’. Taken from the true story that was so well known in the 19th century, but basically forgotten today. Ford was a James afficando, obsessed with the man since childhood and convinced that he had much in common with the popular outlaw. Fate brought Robert into the James gang when it had fallen on hard times. He befriended Jesse, worshiped the man, but became disillusioned, perhaps less because of anything James did then because he felt he would never be what he wanted to be in Jesse’s eyes. Ford killed James in an act widely considered one of cowardice, and though he made his living from those events, staring in a stage show about his act and later operating a saloon in Colorado, they eventually lead to his death, when another nobody, who felt slighted by the way James died, shot the shooter in his own bar. Eye opening tragic performance by Cassy Afleck as Ford. Mary-Lousie Parker with to little to do as Jesse’s wife. James Carville plays a Missouri Governor.