An iconic outlaw gets grounded as just another flawed member of humanity in this Andrew Dominik directorial effort.
Jesse James was a robber. Or maybe he was a father. Perhaps he was first and foremost a leader, one who could summon up a ragtag coalition whenever he had a new scheme to pull off. When you become as legendary of a figure as this man, the facts tend to get drowned out in the stew of history. Facts become fiction, legends become reality, and human beings get turned into deities.
Similarly, Brad Pitt’s performance of James is not of a cunning strategist or lethal killing machine, but as someone a lot more complicated. Shortly after that train heist, Robert Ford wanders over to James, sitting in a chair, a snake wrapped around his arm. It’s a peculiar sight, but it’s far from the only instance of James dabbling in inexplicable behavior. Equally memorable is how often James is depicted as being paranoid rather than a master of his wits.
Part of why Pitt’s depiction of James potentially suffering from these disorders doesn’t come across as cheap or exploitative is due to Dominik’s screenplay refusing to pack the character into a box. James is a murderer, but he’s also a father who demonstrates genuine compassion for his kids. He even ends up having a genuine, albeit strained, affection for Robert Ford and his brother stemming from how he sees them as the only two people he can trust anymore in a world gone haywire.
We don’t get to control how others perceive us after our death. Sometimes, heroes become villains, other times, monsters get to be perceived as heroes. It’s one of the many uncertain things connected to the inevitable process of dying. In the case of Jesse James, the legend of a train robbing outlaw shot down in his prime has ensured that his legacy will be a mythic one. It’s hard to say if that’s what James would or wouldn’t have wanted.
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