Jesse James
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Movie Reviews of Jesse James
Movie Review: Jessie James
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been looking for this item for a long time. I'm very happy to get it.Movie Review: All-star cast, spectacle overcome plot & character problems in the first Technicolor western
Summary: 4 Stars
The first Technicolor western (released in January of 1939, three months before DODGE CITY), this big-budget, big-scale affair is loaded with talent: Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda as the outlaw brothers Jesse and Frank, Randolph Scott as sympathetic Marshall Will Wright, John Carradine as Jesse's eventual killer Bob Ford, Nancy Kelly as "Zee", Jesse's beloved, and Brian Donlevy as Barshee, the railroad purchasing agent who is the initial villain and the main impetus in the James brothers' turning towards a life of crime.
Or so it is in this Hollywood fantasy which has very, very little to do with the facts, such as they are known. Of course Hollywood westerns shouldn't be expected to take the place of history books even on the best days, but JESSE JAMES is a worse offender than most. The Civil War is barely mentioned in the film - the real James Gang were Confederate raiders and the lost cause was certainly an element in their turning to crime; the Younger gang is never identified as such, with the Northfield Minnesota raid being present as wholly a "James Gang" effort; Bob Ford, a man of 20 when he killed Jesse, is played by the middle-aged John Carradine and presented as a main member of the gang when in reality he was a new recruit overshadowed by his older brother Charlie (played by a much younger actor here). And so on. So historical accuracy is out the window here.
That out of the way - and really, the accuracy stuff in this case should only matter to historians, not viewers just going for a rousing western - the film is overall a success, though not a complete one. It's got some spectacular scenes - the first train robbery, with Jesse jumping from car to car as a mere silhouette against the setting sun, is just stunning, and the Northfield raid and chase afterwards (where a horse was killed in the filming, which helped to lead to the monitoring of films for animal cruelty that we have today) are pretty exciting. Scott and Fonda are pretty solid in their roles, and Donlevy does his usual villainy well; unfortunately Power in the central role just doesn't have a lot of gravity and just doesn't project a lot of personality. Power of course became a star initially because of his looks, but he did end up doing some great serious work on occasion, most especially in the great noir Nightmare Alley a decade after this film. He did take a while to develop though and wasn't always used well early on - this falls into the category of an ill fit, I think. And he isn't helped out by the screenplay's efforts to make him out to be an outright heroic figure at first, with a steady and fairly quick descent into something like madness. Jesse's motivations after the first revenge killing and the first couple of robberies just aren't clear or believable, and as the film revolves around him - with brother Frank and Scott's lawman as generally ineffective foils against his growing instability - it becomes rather hard to really care what's going on, especially given the inevitable outcome.
All in all, it's worth seeing for the color and most of the cast as I said are fine. Added to the leads we have Henry Hull as Zee's uncle Rufus, a die-hard southern sympathizer and muckraking newspaper publisher who might provide a bit more than enough comic relief (though he's always fun when he's around), and Jane Darwell shows up for a couple of scenes at the beginning as the brothers' ill-fated mother. So I think this is a film that will probably appeal more to the "classic Hollywood" audience than the "hardcore western" crowd, despite Scott's appearance. It's certainly not the best western from 1939 by a long shot, but it's hardly the worst I've seen either. The following year's sequel, The Return of Frank James, is just a tad better I think, with Fritz Lang's direction more than making up for the lack of Scott and Power.
DVD note: As a couple of others have said, the color here isn't terrific, though I don't think it's bad enough to warrant downgrading my rating; it's hard to imagine at this point a better, remastered edition showing up anytime soon, and the film is certainly worth seeing for those interested in westerns of this period or fans of any of the stars. Minimal extras include a couple of Movietone clips from 1939 showing the red carpet premiere, and Power getting a star of the year award.
Movie Review: A "good bad man"
Summary: 4 Stars
Jesse James might with some justification be called America's Robin Hood: throughout his life of active lawlessness, the people in his native region of Missouri protected him, hid him, helped him, lied for him, and worshipped him as a hero. Many legends tell of the good deeds he did in return, including one very famous one about how he saved a widow's farm from foreclosure. (Whether any of these tales are true is, of course, another question entirely.) Certainly he did his deeds with impunity for over a decade and despite some close calls was never taken alive: it took a trusted member of his own gang to bring him down--by shooting him in the back.
This classic from 1939 (one of the best years in the history of film) scrambles history a bit (as was customary among movies of that era), but it retains the central idea of Jesse as a man more sinned against than sinning, while at the same time showing how (to quote the theme song from the much-later short-lived TV series about him) "His killin' turned him cold, he grew bitter, he grew bold..." Jesse (Tyrone Power) and his older brother Frank (Henry Fonda) are quietly working the farm of their widowed mother (Jane Darwell) when a man named Barshee (Brian Donleavy) and his cohorts, agents for the railroad planning to build into their area, comes along and tries to pressure them into selling their land for a lot less than it's worth. The Jameses whip him and throw him out, then try to rally their neighbors to resist the road's bullying lawfully, but it already has the law pretty much sewn up, and Barshee gets himself deputized and leads a posse out to the farm to arrest the brothers. Warned by Maj. Rufus Cobb (Henry Hull), the feisty publisher of the local newspaper, they escape, but Barshee won't believe they're gone and hurls a bomb into the house, killing Mrs. James. At this Jesse kills Barshee in a barroom shootout and vows revenge against the railroad. When his friend, Marshal Will Wright (Randolph Scott), gains its president's promise of "minimal prosecution," he tries coming in, only to be betrayed. Frank and his gang spring him, and Jesse, seeing that the die is cast, sets out to do as much damage as he can before someone ends his career. Meanwhile, Cobb's niece Zee (Nancy Kelly), with whom Jesse grew up, has agreed to marry him before he can be sent away to serve his supposed minimum sentence, and the movie gives a lot of attention to her reactions as Jesse becomes harder and more suspicious with the passing years. At last, wounded in a botched bank robbery, he makes his way back to her and vows that they'll go to California and start over again. But fate has something else in its bag for Jesse.
There's a lot of erroneous information--or omitted fact--in the movie (Frank and Jesse both served in a Confederate guerrilla unit during the Civil War, which is never mentioned; they had a full sister, two stepfathers, and four half-sibs; Zee (yes, she existed) was really a cousin of Jesse's, and they had four children (not just one), of whom two survived infancy; and while the James house was indeed bombed by the forces of law and order, it happened toward the end of the James's career, not at the beginning, and Jesse's mother lost only an arm, not her life). But Power and especially Fonda make their characters alive and sympathetic, as does Scott, and Hull is a delight as an old-fashioned country journalist whose editorials railing against everything from governors, lawyers, and railroad presidents to horse thieves and dentists always seem to be worded exactly the same (his typesetter can "take a editorial" more or less from memory). Watch for a very young David Carradine as Bob Ford. There's also some beautiful scenery that gives the very feel of early Missouri. If you don't mind the inaccuracies and the compression of time, it's a full-blooded and very enjoyable film.
Viewers interested in a sympathetic but more historically accurate account of the Jameses and how they took to the outlaw trail might want to read Jesse James Was My Neighbor.
Movie Review: A highly romanticized account of the infamous desperado...
Summary: 4 Stars
Splendid in his first Western and his first Technicolor movie, Power portrayed Jesse James as a sympathetic hero and the most charming bank robber of the Old West...
Teamed with Henry Fonda, and stalwart Randolph Scott, Henry King came with a Western classic, considered as one the best Jesse James of the series...
The film opens in Pineville with hothead Jesse and temperate Frank as a couple of Missouri brothers who, embittered by the ruthless tactics of a railroad agent, got a warrant and had to skip out, hiding out until Major Rufus Cobb (Henry Hull) can get the governor to give them a fair trial ... But the railroad's got too much at stake to let two farmer boys bollix things up...
After they had thrown Barshee (Brian Donlevy), the brutal railroad representative off the farm of their widowed mother (Jane Darwell) when she refused to sign over her property, Jesse and Frank later learn that she had been killed by a bomb tossed into their home by Barshee himself... Jesse returns, shoots Barshee, and vows revenge on the railroad, with the complete sympathy of the Missouri populace...
Jesse's sweetheart, Zee and her uncle, publisher Major Rufus, are among the James' supporters, as is U. S. Marshal Will Wright (Scott), but he has a job to do and is forced to track down the two brothers...
Jesse and Frank have expanded their operation from merely harassing the St. Louis Midland with a series of holdups to robbing banks...
Pursuaded by railroad president McCoy (Donald Meek) to talk Jesse into surrendering, Wright extracts a written promise of a light sentence for the desperado... Zee then urges Jesse to give himself up following their wedding...
Of course, Henry King tries to show how Jesse hated the railroads and from that hate he presented a charismatic hero... But this hero was not going to last... The more luck he had, the worse he gets... It'll be his appetite for shooting and robbing until something happens to him...
He also shows a worried fiancée keeping thinking of an outlaw all the time out there in the hills just going on and on to nowhere just trying to keep alive with everybody after him, wanting to kill him to get that money...
There's a scene near the end where Zee (Nancy Kelly) after delivering her baby is lying in bed with her creature, with the presence of the Marshal, so to speak, between herself and her uncle that suddenly made clear to me what the entire film was about... Her feelings as a woman: "I'm so tired to care. This is the way it always is. We live like animals, scared animals. We move. We hide. We don't dare to go out... "
Obviously she is a sensitive woman who exposes her being on screen without losing sight of reality... That's quite a great scene from King, and key in this great Western, as it's really all about her character, Zee Cobb, a struggling woman in love now a mother with a baby to take care of...
So please don't miss it!
Movie Review: great early technicolor western
Summary: 4 Stars
1939 is considered by many critics and film conniseurs to be the most definitive year for films. some of the greatest films ever produced were released in 1939. the list is myriad, and for westerns this film is definitely included in that list.
even though this is a somewhat fictionalized account of the exploits of the James boys (Frank and Jesse), some of the events depicted are true. however, more fiction is depicted here than truth making this only entertaining western fare; but what entertainment it is. the story is so expertly told that it compels the viewer to become inevitable advocates for the James brothers cause. truly great filmmaking.
as for the DVD, to some degree i must debunk the reviews regarding the alleged poor transfer of this film to DVD. please do not allow those negative reviews to deter you from purchasing this film if it is of interest to you. several factors must be considered before criticizing a film. primarily, it's age. i realize that some films even older than this one are no less than pristine in their transfer. however, one must remember, in many of those films the original video and audio elements were still present or at least restorable. this film is nearly 70 years old and comprehensively a very good transfer with only a few scenes lacking in brilliance. it's not pristine or flawless but still worth owning. i believe some reviewers just expect too much.