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19 Years Ago Today: Brad Pitt Flop Ranked Among the Best Westerns of All Time
21
Sep
Sep
Nineteen years ago today, Brad Pitt released a Western that audiences largely ignored. He later called it his favorite movie he’d made—and predicted that time would eventually prove its worth.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford opened in Los Angeles and New York on Sept. 21, 2007, according to the American Film Institute. Years later, BBC Culture’s poll of 177 critics ranked Andrew Dominik’s film No. 92 among the 100 greatest films of the 21st century.
Related: 2001 Classic, Turned Down by Brad Pitt, Released 25 Years Ago Today
Brad Pitt Saw Something Audiences Didn’t
Pitt, who played outlaw Jesse James and also produced the movie, never seemed bothered by its commercial fate. In a 2017 interview, he made a striking admission about where the Western stood among his much bigger hits.
“My favorite movie is the worst-performing film of anything I’ve done, The Assassination of Jesse James,” Pitt told GQ. “If I believe something is worthy, then I know it will be worthy in time to come.”
That confidence looks considerably less lonely today. Beyond the BBC ranking, the movie holds a 76% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus praises its lead performances and craftsmanship.
Next: 30 Years Ago Today: Criticized Bruce Willis Western Had a Surprising Clint Eastwood Connection
The Western Earned Major Recognition
The film wasn’t entirely overlooked in 2007. Pitt won the Volpi Cup for best actor at the Venice Film Festival for his performance as James.
Casey Affleck’s portrayal of Robert Ford and Roger Deakins’ cinematography subsequently earned Academy Award nominations. Deakins’ photography became one of the film’s defining elements; he has explained that the production used period handmade window glass because of the rippled effect it created when shooting or projecting light through it.
The movie itself refuses the easy pleasures of a conventional gunslinger story. Instead, its 160-minute running time turns Jesse James’ final months into a brooding examination of celebrity, obsession and the danger of idolizing someone from a distance.
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