BOT's Top 50 Historical Fiction Films - The Countdown

[CoolioD1]

Was this list put on shuffle before it was posted? like it's a lot of the films i'd expected but the order feels pretty random.

Edited May 11, 2020 by CoolioD1

[RealLyre]

Come & See is lower than I thought. but me glad it's close to the top 20.  it's one of the scariest movies I've seen this year!

 

 

 

[RealLyre]

Quote

74.    Little Women (2019)
 

oh 

[4815162342]

I like so much of Singin' in the Rain but by god does that Broadway Melody sequence just bring the film to a screeching halt

[Cap]

1 minute ago, 4815162342 said:

I like so much of Singin' in the Rain but by god does that Broadway Melody sequence just bring the film to a screeching halt

Ban.

Edited May 11, 2020 by Cap
(Should note, not a real one, lol, just, one in spirit.  Should probably clarify that if I'm gonna make that joke)

[baumer]

23 minutes ago, RealLyre said:

Come & See is lower than I thought. but me glad it's close to the top 20.  it's one of the scariest movies I've seen this year!

 

 

 

 

Only reason i's lower is because not many have seen it.

[CoolioD1]

43 minutes ago, 4815162342 said:

I like so much of Singin' in the Rain but by god does that Broadway Melody sequence just bring the film to a screeching halt

more like a screeching high point! 

[Jake Gittes]

1 hour ago, 4815162342 said:

I like so much of Singin' in the Rain but by god does that Broadway Melody sequence just bring the film to a screeching halt

Yeah take out that and Beautiful Girl and I'm onboard with the masterpiece crowd. 

[Jake Gittes]

1 hour ago, CoolioD1 said:

Was this list put on shuffle before it was posted? like it's a lot of the films i'd expected but the order feels pretty random.

Not that many lists, a lot of different movies and a tight point system that groups them all incredibly close together pretty much explains it. 

[Cap]

15 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

Yeah take out that and Beautiful Girl and I'm onboard with the masterpiece crowd. 

-clutches pearls- omg. Take out a Gratuitous scene of hot-for-the-era female eye candy from a Kelly and Freed production?!? How dare you, Sir  😂

[CoolioD1]

52 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

Not that many lists, a lot of different movies and a tight point system that groups them all incredibly close together pretty much explains it. 

when i see dances with wolves, which is a fine enough film, at #22 i'm just like

 

[MrGamer]

2 hours ago, Cap said:

Ban.

But seriously, ban him.

[The Panda]

2 hours ago, Jake Gittes said:

Not that many lists, a lot of different movies and a tight point system that groups them all incredibly close together pretty much explains it. 

There were 24 lists, which is a fairly sizable amount (Boffy participation is usually a bit over 30 voters, so a little less than that).  The key factor was beyond maybe 10 films, there wasn't much consensus across lists, giving room for individual high votes for films in the 20+ range to have a lot of influence.

[Plain Old Tele]

4 hours ago, 4815162342 said:

I like so much of Singin' in the Rain but by god does that Broadway Melody sequence just bring the film to a screeching halt

But that sequence also contains Cyd Charisse and her legs, so... win. 

[The Panda]

 

 

"It looks, after all, as if you will see Berlin before I do."

 

Historical Setting: World War 2, German POW Camps

 

Source from the Period

 

"1st postcard in series
John is in Camp Concentramento P.G. n 66. P.M. 3400
Correspondence begins:

Dear Uncle Jack 9-9-42
Just a few lines to let you know that the worst has happened I am a POW. Is it asking too much if you could send me through the Red Cross a food parcel, hope I am not imposing too much. Ever your loving nephew John.

 

3rd letter
From John, now in Campo PG 52 PM 3100

Dear Uncle Jack, July 5th 1943
I was indeed delighted when I received your kind letter dated 26/1/43. Thank you so much for your kind attention as regards food parcels. I am glad to inform you that every prisoner is receiving from the Red Cross 1 food parcel per man each week, so I am much better off now than I was when I last wrote. Everyone at home are well and I have another sister so mother says in her last letter. Joe who is in the RAF is in Africa and was last heard of enjoying himself. Well Uncle lines are limited so I am sorry I must cut short. Give my love to Aunt Ruth, Aunt Lily, Uncle Bob and Cousin Jean. Ever your loving nephew, John.

 

4th letter
From John, in Stalag 8B, Gebruft, Germany

Dear Uncle Jack, 27/11/43
Just a few lines to let you know I am alright. It is now eighteen months ago since I was captured on the “Western Desert”. By the marks on this card you can see for yourself that I am now in German Hands. I must say I feel and I really am a lot better since I’ve got over the worst experiences as a POW. My family is faring very well, (Ewarts) (I’m not married yet) but for the fact that Dad has had two serious strokes and I’m slightly worried about him. Walter is married and a proud father of a little son. Please excuse abrupt note. Give my love to Uncle Bob, Aunt Ruth, Aunt Lily, Jean etc. Your affectionate nephew, John.

 

5th letter
From John, in Stalag 344

Dear Uncle Jack 25/9/44
Thanks for your kind letter dated 20/3/44. I am pleased to know everyone is as well as can be expected. Mother tells me in her letter that she feels more settled now that she is getting over the loss of Father. Do you know? Mother lives 3, Chathill Terrace, Walker now. Myself I am as well as can be expected under the circumstances, I am still getting the Red Cross Parcel weekly also 25 cigarettes. Thanks so much for your enquiries to the Red Cross but now I am more or less settled till the War ends.Give my love to Aunt Ruth, Uncle Bob, Aunt Lily, Jean. Ever your Loving Nephew
John. Please excuse abruptness.

 

At the end of the war, the prisoners of war were being moved. John was sent (along with other prisoners of war) into a wood with a German Officer. The Officer told them all to separate — they were on their own. John was found by some partisans and sent to a family house in Checkoslovakia.
The family hid him until he was re-patriated.Hi

In June 1945, Ellen received a telegram while her Mother was at the theatre. She opened the telegram, which said that John was returning the next day."

- Letters by a POW - John Ewart

 

Historical Context

 

"Located in Zagan, Poland, construction on the first compound (East Compound) was completed and opened on March 21, 1942.   This camp, run by the German Luftwaffe, was designed to be a prisoner-of-war camp for Allied airmen.  In April 1942, the first prisoners to arrive at the camp were British Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm officers.  Stalag Luft III had a number of features that made escape extremely difficult and nearly impossible.  First, the barracks which housed the prisoners were raised off the ground in order to help guards detect any tunneling activity.  Secondly, the camp was constructed in an area with very sandy subsoil – which happened to be bright yellow in color, making it easily detectable if placed on surface soil and visible on clothing.  This subsoil was very loose and susceptible to collapse meaning structural integrity of any tunnel would be very poor.  Construction was continuous at the camp and by the end of March 1943 the North Compound for British airmen was opened.  North Compound is the site of this great escape plan.  Each of these compounds consisted of 15 single story huts.  Each bunk room could sleep 15 men in five triple deck bunks.  At the height of occupation, the camp held about 2,500 RAF officers, 7,500 U.S. Army Air Forces, and about 900 officers from other Allied air forces. 

 

In the spring of 1943, Squadron Leader Roger Bushell of the RAF conceived a plan for a major escape from the camp.  Bushell was in command of the Escape Committee and channeled his effort to finding weak points in the camp and procuring the necessary supplies for the escapees.  Bushell’s original plan was to dig three tunnels at the same time and attempt to break 200 men out at once.  Codenamed “Tom,” “Dick,” and “Harry” the three tunnels were a ploy of deception – Bushell believed that if one tunnel was discovered, the German guards wouldn’t think that two additional tunnels were in the work.  One key component of Bushell’s plan was that each of the escapees a full complement of paperwork and have civilian clothing made for them.

 

Tunneling was difficult work, mostly because the prisoners had to evade growing German suspicion that something was a foot.  When “Tom” was discovered, the 98thtunnel in this camp to be, construction on “Harry” ceased for a while as well.  Using the wooden slats from their beds, tunneling around 336 feet, and ingenious methods of funneling air in the tunnel and over 200 tons of sand out, a date for escape was finally selected.  The first group of 100 guaranteed a spot in the tunnel were those who spoke good German, had the most complete set of papers, and were considered those how had worked the hardest on the construction of the tunnel.  As night fell on March 24, 1944, all those who had been selected to be a part of the escape made their way to Hut 104.  Slowly, men made their way down the tunnel.  “Harry” exited about 45 feet from one of the camp watchtowers.  The 77thman to emerge from the tunnel at 4:55 am was spotted by one of the guards.  Of the 76 men to attempt escape, only three made it all the way to an allied country.  The remaining 73 men were recaptured over the course of the following days—of those men, 50 were executed on Hitler’s order, including the mastermind of the escape Roger Bushell."

- 25 MAR 70 YEARS LATER: A LOOK BACK AT THE ESCAPE FROM STALAG LUFT III

DDay.org

 

Historical Accuracy

 

"On the night of March 24, 1944 a total of 220 British and Commonwealth officers were poised to escape by tunnel from North Compound, Stalag Luft III, the main camp for allied aircrew prisoners of war at Sagan in Nazi-occupied Poland.  The subsequent events, thanks to numerous books and the 1963 Hollywood epic The Great Escape, have become the stuff of legend. However the real story had nothing to do with Steve McQueen on a motorbike and over the top derring-do by a few men – in reality some 600 were involved.  Despite being meticulously planned by the committee known as the X Organisation, the escape was a far messier affair than we have previously been led to believe. Events unfolded in chaos with numerous hold-ups and tunnel collapses. Some pushed their way in line; others fled their post altogether.  Now, after corresponding with and interviewing survivors, and seven painstaking years of trawling through historical records in archives across Europe, prisoner-of-war historian Charles Rollings throws new light on the night of the ‘Great Escape’.

 

...

 

There are three tiers of escapees. First, the 30 priority prisoners; either heads of the X Organisation or foreign language speakers deemed to have a good chance of making it back to Britain. They have the best suits, carry the most forged documents and the most money.  Second are the low-priority train-travellers, about another 30 in all - in uniforms roughly converted to look like civvies - who are given fewer forged documents and less money. Bringing up the rear are the “footsloggers” who wear even less convincing disguises and receive the bare minimum in the way of documents and money. Instead they carry blanket-rolls, extra rations, camp-made water bottles and portable stoves (also made in the camp).  While the first team consists mainly of forgers, map-makers, surveyors, tailors, intelligence gatherers and contact men who bribed the guards, the second and third teams are made up of tunnellers, sand dispersers (known as ‘penguins’), carpenters and lookout-men (‘stooges’), but also code letter-writers and members of the camp administration whose duties have prevented them from taking part in escape preparations. Most of the escapees are flight lieutenants – the air force equivalent of army captains.

 

...

 

Those waiting in the woods by the rendezvous tree feel two short sharp tugs on the rope meaning: danger.  Through the approaching daylight another sentry has been spotted, this time walking on the near side of the road along the edge of the wood. The German keeps steadily on. Seven yards…six yards…five yards away. He seems to be looking straight ahead in a daze; his boots crunching steadily through the snow.  Suddenly he notices the slushy track coming from the tunnel shaft and one of the prisoners crawling out. He lets out a howl, fires a shot into the air and shouts for help.  In the tunnel someone shouts: “Get back, the goons are here,” sparking a mad scramble back to the safety of the hut. A horde of German guards comes running along the road and fans out into the woods.

 

...

 

Two weeks later the remaining prisoners at Stalag Luft III receive news that 42 of the recaptured escapees had been shot “resisting arrest or making further escape attempts after arrest”. When the list of victims was posted it amounted to 47 names, and a few days later another three were added, bringing the total to 50. Among the dead were 25 Britons, six Canadians, three Australians, two New Zealanders, three South Africans, four Poles, two Norwegians, one Frenchman and a Greek. A further 23 were sent back to various other Nazi prison camps. Only three of the escapees - two Norwegians and a Dutchman - made it home.  There was to be no Hollywood ending for the men of Stalag Luft III.  As one officer put it in the weeks following the foiled escape: “Now we were truly prisoners.”"

- What really happened on the night of The Great Escape

The Telegraph

 

 

The Film Itself

 

The Story

 

"Based on a true story, a group of allied escape artist-type prisoners-of-war are all put in an "escape proof" camp. Their leader decides to try to take out several hundred all at once. The first half of the movie is played for comedy, as the prisoners mostly outwit their jailers to dig the escape tunnel. The second half is high adventure as they use planes, trains, and boats to get out of occupied Europe."

 

Critic Opinion

 

"The film is an account of the bold, meticulous plotting that led to the escape of 76 prisoners from a Nazi detention camp, and subsequent developments that resulted in the demise of 50, recapture of a dozen.  Early scenes depict the formulation of the mass break design. These are played largely for laughs, at the occasional expense of reality, and there are times when authority seems so lenient that the inmates almost appear to be running the asylum.

 

There are some exceptional performances. The most provocative single impression is made by Steve McQueen as a dauntless Yank pilot whose ‘pen’-manship record shows 18 blots, or escape attempts. James Garner is the compound’s ‘scrounger’, a traditional type in the Stalag 17 breed of war-prison film. Charles Bronson and James Coburn do solid work, although the latter’s character is anything but clearly defined.  British thespians weigh in with some of the finest performances in the picture. Richard Attenborough is especially convincing in a stellar role, that of the man who devises the break. A moving portrayal of a prisoner losing his eyesight is given by Donald Pleasence. It is the film’s most touching character."

- Variety, 1962

 

BOT User Opinion

 

"Yep, a fun, charming and quite wonderful film. It has a light and breezy tone despite the serious subject matter, and somehow it works. A lot of familiar faces aside from Steve McQueen, like Dr. Loomis from Halloween and Harmonica from Once Upon a Time in the West. Great score too.  However, I gotta say any prison escape involving 250! people is bound to fail." - @The Stingray

 

Factoids

 

The Great Escape was directed by John Sturges.  It received 46 points and 9 votes.

 

 

Countries Represented: Algeria (1), Austria (2), Belarus (1), England (1), France (1), Germany (2), Israel (2), Korea (1), Poland (1), Japan (3), Spain (1), United States (15), Vietnam (1)

 

Time Periods Represented: 16th Century (1), 17th Century (2), 18th Century (2), 19th Century (3), 1920s (1), 1930s (3), 1950s (2), 1960s (5), 1990s (1), 21st Century (2), Classical Period (2), Middle Ages (1), World War 1/1910s (1), World War 2/1940s (6)

 

Cross Section of Times and Countries: 18th Century - Austria (1), 18th Century - United States (1), 19th Century - United States (3), 21st Century - United States (2), 1920s - United States (1), 1930s - Germany (1), 1930s - Korea (1), 1930s - United States (1), 1950s - Algeria (1), 1950s - United States (1), 1960s - United States (4), 1960s - Vietnam (1), 1990s - United States (1), Classical Period - Israel (2), Middle Ages - England (1), Sengoku Period - Japan (1), Tokugawa Shogunate - Japan (2), World War 1 - France (1), World War 2/1940s - Belarus (1), World War 2/1940s - Germany (1), World War 2/1940s - Poland (1), World War 2/1940s - Spain (1), World War 2 - Austria (1), World War 2 - United States (1)

 

Directors Represented: Park Chan-Wook (1), Francis Ford Coppola (1), Kevin Costner (1), Stanley Donen (1), David Fincher (2), John Ford (1), Milos Forman (1), Bob Fosse (1), Anthoney Harvey (1), Terry Jones (1), Philip Kaufman (1), Gene Kelley (1), Elem Klimov (1), Masaki Kobayashi (1), Stanley Kramer (1), Akira Kurosawa (1), Michael Mann (1), Penny Marshall (1), Adam McKay (1), Steve McQueen (1), Theodore Melfi (1), Sam Mendes (1), Gillo Pontecorvo (1), Martin Scorsese (2), Steven Spielberg (2), Oliver Stone (1), John Sturges (1), Guillermo Del Torro (1), Robert Wise (1), William Wyler (1)

 

Decades Represented: 40s (1), 50s (2), 60s (6), 70s (3), 80s (5), 90s (3), 00s (3), 10s (9)

 

 

 

[cannastop]

7 hours ago, 4815162342 said:

I like so much of Singin' in the Rain but by god does that Broadway Melody sequence just bring the film to a screeching halt

no. best part of the movie.

[charlie Jatinder]

20 hours ago, The Panda said:

69.    There Will Be Blood 
70.    Argo 

Dafaq.

[Eric Duncan]

I prefer a sweet escape thank you very much

 

 

[Plain Old Tele]

Re: GREAT ESCAPE, it’s worth pointing out that not only is it based on a true story, it’s based on an autobiographical book by one of the prisoners (which it hews to quite closely, aside from McQueen’s shenanigans at the end.)

[The Panda]

 

 

"By his own approximation, Bob assassinated Jesse James over 800 times. He suspected no one in history had ever so often or so publicly recapitulated an act of betrayal."

 

Historical Setting: Late Reconstruction Era, The American West

 

Source from the Period

 

"Governor McClurg:

 

DEAR SIR: I and my brother Frank are charged with the crime of killing the cashier and robbing the bank at Gallatin, Mo., Dec. 7th, 1869. I can prove, by some of the best men in Missouri, where I was the day of the robbery and the day previous to it, but I well know if I was to submit to an arrest, that I would be mobbed and hanged without a trial. The past is sufficient to show that bushwackers have been arrested in Missouri since the war, charged with bank robbery, and they most all have been mobbed without trials. I will cite you the case of Thomas Little, of Lafayette county, Mo. A few days after the bank was robbed at Richmond, in 1867, Mr. Little was charged with being one of the party who perpetrated the deed. He was sent from St. Louis to Warrensburg under a heavy guard. As soon as the parties arrived there, they found out that he (Mr. Little) could prove, by the citizens of Dover, that he was innocent of the charge -- as soon as these scoundrels found out that he was innocent -- a mob was raised, broke in the jail, took him out and hanged him.

 

Governor, when I think I can get a fair trial, I will surrender myself to the civil authorities of Missouri. But I never will surrender to be mobbed by a set of bloodthirsty poltroons. It is true that during the war I was a Confederate soldier, and fought under the black flag, but since then I have lived a peaceable citizen, and obeyed the laws of the United States to the best of my knowledge. The authorities of Gallatin say the reason that led them to suspect me was that the mare left at Gallatin, by the robbers, was identified as belonging to me. That is false. I can prove that I sold the mare previous to the robbery. It is true that I fought Deputy Sheriff Thomason, of Clay county, but was not my brother with me when we had the fight. I do not think that I violated the law when I fought Thomason as his posse refused to tell me who they were.

 

Three different statements have been published in reference to the fight that I had with Thomason, but they are all a pack of falsehoods. Deputy Sheriff Thomason has never yet given any report of the fight, that I have seen. I am personally acquainted with Oscar Thomason, the Deputy's son, but when the shooting began, his face was so muffled up with furs that I did not recognize him. But if I did violate the law when I fought Thomason I am perfectly willing to abide by it.

But as to them mobbing me for a crime that I am innocent of, that is played out. As soon as I think I can get a just trial I will surrender myself to the civil authorities of Missouri, and prove to the world that I am innocent of the crime charged against me.

 

Respectfully,
Jesse W. James"

- The Liberty Tribune, June 24, 1870
June, 1870

 

Historic Context

 

"Well before he died, Jesse James was a legend. Some thought him a Robin Hood, who robbed banks and handed out cash to the poor. Others, including President Ulysses S. Grant, judged him a homicidal crook. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that he redistributed his ill-gotten gains. And as for his violent behavior, it appear to have been rooted in a very specific historical context.  Born in 1847, he and his brother Frank came of age during the American Civil War. They enlisted with the Confederate Army as teenagers and although the war ended in 1865, for the James brothers, it was never really over.  T. J. Stiles is the award-winning author of, "Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War." In an email interview, he laid out some of the conditions that led Jesse James toward a life of post-Civil War violent crime.

 

The influences of Zerelda and Archie Clement combined with Jesse James' war experiences to foster James' career of politically-tinged violence. Stiles notes that the Confederate guerrilla group he joined at the age of 16, was, "essentially a death squad, going farm to farm in the county where he had grown up, murdering farmers in their fields or homes simply because of their loyalties."  In other words, the war taught him he could commit acts of terrorism and get away with it. And post-Civil War politics had everything to do with his longevity as a criminal. "The reason Jesse James lasted free and alive as a fugitive for more than a decade — far longer than the typical outlaw," explains Stiles, "is that he was seen as a political hero to former Confederates, a role he cultivated." But the protection this status afforded him would not last forever.  After a bank robbery in Minnesota went wrong, Jesse's gang barely escaped capture. They fled back to Missouri and while Frank James, his brother, seems to have settled down, Jesse went on another crime spree. The new governor of Missouri, Thomas Crittenden, convinced private corporations to offer a substantial reward for the capture and conviction of the James brothers. Then he arranged a secret meeting at a hotel after a ball in Kansas City with the last two remaining members of Jesse's gang, Charley and Robert Ford. By this time, Jesse had grown paranoid and the Ford brothers were the only people he still trusted.  His trust was poorly placed.

 

On the morning of April 3, 1882, Jesse and the Ford brothers breakfasted together before retiring to the living room to discuss their plans for an upcoming robbery. Jesse noticed a dusty picture on the wall and decided now was the time to clean it. He climbed onto a chair to reach it. Robert Ford took a deep breath and drew his gun. Jesse was a man Ford had long admired. A man he'd emulated. Yet Ford aimed his gun at the back of Jesse's head and fired.  After the Ford brothers notified the authorities, they were arrested and thrown in prison for murder. They confessed and were sentenced to death. But this seems to have been part of the governor's plan.  T. J. Stiles states that, given the circumstances, it seems almost certain that when Governor Crittenden met with the Ford brothers before the shooting, he promised to let them off the hook when the time came if they were up for some extrajudicial killing.  

 

"By the time Jesse James was marked for death," says Stiles, "his cause had run its course. Reconstruction was reversed nationwide and within Missouri, where former Confederates dominated the ruling Democratic Party. The outlaw had no more political support; he was simply a criminal. Crittenden had a free hand, so to speak. Two things suggest that Crittenden explicitly authorized the Ford brothers to kill Jesse James at their secret meeting after the ball in Kansas City: First, the brothers immediately surrendered to authorities after the murder and pleaded guilty. (A pardon could only be issued after a conviction.) They would hardly have done so if they were not certain of a pardon. Second, they were actually pardoned. I find it impossible to conclude that there was not an explicit understanding."  Out of prison, the Ford brothers leveraged their notoriety into a travelling show in which they reenacted the killing of Jesse James. But over time, public opinion turned against them. They folded the show and went their separate ways.  Frank James surrendered to the authorities after his brother's death. He spent a year and three weeks in jail but was never convicted for his many crimes. He married, had children and eventually returned to his mother's farm, where, after a long and mostly uneventful life, he died at the age of 74.  Some people do not believe that Jesse James was killed on April 3, 1882; these people claim his death was faked and that he actually died of old age many years later. There is also a bit of controversy about whether he was actually standing on a chair or had just turned his back on Robert Ford, though most historians do ascribe to the theory that James had stepped up on a chair to do a bit of housekeeping."

- The Cold-blooded Assassination of Outlaw Jesse James

Oisin Curran

 

Historical Accuracy

 

"The James-Younger gang is in Blue Cut, Missouri, to rob a train. James himself is shown to be a greedy thug with a penchant for smashing people's faces in. It's true about the face-smashing but, other than that, reports of the Blue Cut robbery suggest the real James was in relatively good humour. He delivered a long rant against the railroad corporations, bragged about himself, and allegedly fetched a wet handkerchief to revive a woman who fainted, before giving her back the dollar he had stolen from her.  Following this brief flurry of excitement, the film settles into a ponderous rota of lingering landscape shots and the occasional explosion of rough banter between incomprehensibly-accented bandits. Brad Pitt plays James as Hamlet: he wears big coats made of wolfskins, wanders gloomily on to frozen ponds to contemplate existential questions, and alternates moments of tenderness with raging fury. It's a supportable biographical portrait. Frustratingly, though, director Andrew Dominik is bent on keeping the style as solemn and remote as possible, rendering Pitt's performance almost too historically accurate. It's correct to the letter of the available sources, but communicates little sense of James as a human being.

 

Finally, Ford gets his moment. In a painstaking reconstruction of the real-life scene, James uncharacteristically lays down his gunbelt, turns his back on it, and walks to the other side of the room to dust a painting of a horse. Ford seizes a gun and shoots him in the back of the head. The film suggests an intriguing interpretation of James letting his guard down at this moment, an odd piece of behaviour that has always puzzled biographers. You'll have to see the movie to find out what.  Ford is drowning his sorrows in a bar when who should turn up but Nick Cave (composer of the exquisite soundtrack), wearing a bowler hat and a handlebar moustache, and singing a jolly folk song about "that dirty little coward" Robert Ford. This cameo by a modern rock star delivers a massive jolt to the movie's hypnotic serenity, which isn't entirely a bad thing. Cave would have been less incongruous in the 1986 TV version of James's life, which featured an all-star country and western cast: Kris Kristofferson as Jesse, Johnny Cash as Frank, June Carter Cash as, er, their mother, and Willie Nelson as Confederate general Joseph O Shelby. It may not be as accurate as this one, but it sounds a damn sight livelier."

- Alex von Tunzelmann

 

 

The Film Itself

 

The Story

 

"Taking place in Missouri in the early 1880s, the film dramatizes the last seven months in the life of famed outlaw Jesse James, beginning with the Blue Cut train robbery of 1881 and culminating in his assassination at the hands of Robert Ford the following April. In the time between these two fateful events, the young and jealous Ford befriends the increasingly mistrustful outlaw, even as he plots his demise."

 

Critic Opinion

 

"It happened with regularity in the '70s, but every once in a while, a major studio accidentally produces a work of art like The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford—a dark, iconoclastic Western that lacks clear heroes and villains, tucks its only shoot 'em up sequence in the opening reel, and closes on a note of profound ambiguity and regret. In look and tone, it recalls moody revisionist Westerns like McCabe & Mrs. Miller and The Shooting, but with a special attentiveness to the natural world that's closer to Terrence Malick. But perhaps its closest antecedent is Walter Hill's underrated Wild Bill, another story of an outlaw who had the misfortune of being a legend before his death, thus inviting fame-seekers to strike him down. Both films derive a sick sort of tension from the inevitable, as their paranoid anti-heroes wait for an end that they seem to know is coming.

 

Much like writer-director Andrew Dominik's fine debut feature Chopper, which filtered real events through the self-inflating memory of famed Australian sociopath Mark Read, The Assassination Of Jesse James both respects the James legend and brings it back down to earth. As it opens in September 1881, the diminished James gang, led by Brad Pitt's Jesse James and his older brother Frank (Sam Shepard), has been forced to trust some dubious characters in order to pull off what would be its last train robbery. Among them are the Ford brothers, Charley (Sam Rockwell) and Robert (Casey Affleck), the latter a quiet, shifty 19-year-old who bows to no one in his idolization of the notorious gunslinger. Though clearly uneasy with the kid's gnat-like presence—at one point, he asks, "Do you want to be like me, or do you want to be me?"—James keeps him around until the bitter end."

- Scott Tobias, The AV Club

 

BOT User Opinion

 

"It may be a film about betrayal, but oh man, this is so much more than that.  Beautifully shot, great score, and potentially one of the strongest displays of an acting ensemble I've ever seen. Pitt, Affleck, and Rockwell were magnificent. This is one of those films that really creeps up on you with its greatness. It's a slow-moving, intricate film that takes time to build up the characters and get you into the atmosphere of the film.  I love how nothing in the film is simply black or white. Every character is multi-dimensional, and multi-layered. It's simply one of those films that you get so involved with, you forget you're watching a movie. The 10-minute epilogue at the end was also fantastic......ironic, heartbreaking, poignant, and somewhat devastating.
Definitely in my top 50 all-time." - @mattmav45

 

Factoids

 

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was directed by Andrew Dominik.  It received 47 points and 7 votes.

 

 

Countries Represented: Algeria (1), Austria (2), Belarus (1), England (1), France (1), Germany (2), Israel (2), Korea (1), Poland (1), Japan (3), Spain (1), United States (16), Vietnam (1)

 

Time Periods Represented: 16th Century (1), 17th Century (2), 18th Century (2), 19th Century (4), 1920s (1), 1930s (3), 1950s (2), 1960s (5), 1990s (1), 21st Century (2), Classical Period (2), Middle Ages (1), World War 1/1910s (1), World War 2/1940s (6)

 

Cross Section of Times and Countries: 18th Century - Austria (1), 18th Century - United States (1), 19th Century - United States (4), 21st Century - United States (2), 1920s - United States (1), 1930s - Germany (1), 1930s - Korea (1), 1930s - United States (1), 1950s - Algeria (1), 1950s - United States (1), 1960s - United States (4), 1960s - Vietnam (1), 1990s - United States (1), Classical Period - Israel (2), Middle Ages - England (1), Sengoku Period - Japan (1), Tokugawa Shogunate - Japan (2), World War 1 - France (1), World War 2/1940s - Belarus (1), World War 2/1940s - Germany (1), World War 2/1940s - Poland (1), World War 2/1940s - Spain (1), World War 2 - Austria (1), World War 2 - United States (1)

 

Directors Represented: Park Chan-Wook (1), Francis Ford Coppola (1), Kevin Costner (1), Andrew Dominik (1), Stanley Donen (1), David Fincher (2), John Ford (1), Milos Forman (1), Bob Fosse (1), Anthoney Harvey (1), Terry Jones (1), Philip Kaufman (1), Gene Kelley (1), Elem Klimov (1), Masaki Kobayashi (1), Stanley Kramer (1), Akira Kurosawa (1), Michael Mann (1), Penny Marshall (1), Adam McKay (1), Steve McQueen (1), Theodore Melfi (1), Sam Mendes (1), Gillo Pontecorvo (1), Martin Scorsese (2), Steven Spielberg (2), Oliver Stone (1), John Sturges (1), Guillermo Del Torro (1), Robert Wise (1), William Wyler (1)

 

Decades Represented: 40s (1), 50s (2), 60s (6), 70s (3), 80s (5), 90s (3), 00s (4), 10s (9)

 

 

Edited May 12, 2020 by The Panda