"There is no plot in your film": rated 4 out of 5, it's one of the greatest westerns of the last 20 years... And yet, its production was chaotic

Released to cruel general indifference in 2007, misunderstood by its studio, Andrew Dominik's western "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" is nonetheless one of the greatest films of the last twenty years.

There are battered film destinies that hurt. When "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" was released in 2007, many believed that a new golden age of westerns was opening, with films achieving both commercial and critical success, such as "3:10 to Yuma" by James Mangold, "The Proposition" by John Hillcoat, or, even more so, "No Country for Old Men" by the Coen brothers, which would win four Oscars in 2008. Unfortunately, this was not the case at all, quite the opposite...

A western under the influence of Terrence Malick

In 2000, New Zealand filmmaker Andrew Dominik pulled the pin on a grenade thrown in the face of an audience stunned by the violence of his very first film, "Chopper." Starring an incredible Eric Bana, the film recounted the bloody true story of Mark Read, one of Australia's most notorious serial killers, nicknamed "Chopper" due to his penchant for mutilation, including on himself.

After this film, many actors hoped to work with him, including Brad Pitt. He was trying to launch another project, but it was encountering difficulties. He had just read a book he found in a second-hand bookstore in Melbourne. Written by Ron Hansen and published in 1983, it recounted the life of the famous outlaw Jesse James.

In the early 2000s, when Warner Bros. greenlit the film "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," the studio hoped to achieve at least as resounding a success in the genre as Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven."

Warner Bros.

The studio allocated $30 million for the director to adapt Ron Hansen's novel. Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck were chosen for the main roles, and Warner expected to see them engage in action scenes in the purest tradition of the genre. But this was to underestimate Andrew Dominik, who had other plans...

As recounted in a May 2007 article in the Los Angeles Times, the director "wanted to offer a dark and contemplative reflection on fame and infamy, in the spirit of director Terrence Malick." And that is exactly what he did. "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" is an inquiry into the American myth, the public's fascination with celebrities, and the gap between belief and reality, wrapped in a package as contemplative as it is poetic and melancholic, in which time seems to stretch. When Andrew Dominik showed his film to Terrence Malick, the latter quipped with a deliciously ironic "it's too slow." He couldn't have been more right...

"There is no plot in your film"

Meanwhile, Warner studio had forgotten about the film. Anyway, what could go wrong? The budget was under $40 million, there was a very promising director at the helm, Brad Pitt was also on board, in addition to being a producer of the film through his newly formed company, Plan B. But when Warner Bros. executives watched the film, they were perplexed. To say the least, they were downright irritated.

The fact is that "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" is almost an anti-western, completely at odds with the hopes of the studio's executives. The overall tone of the film, and its length, quickly became major sticking points for them. Behind the scenes, a nine-month tug-of-war ensued between Dominik and the studio over the film's length and editing. The director was even fired and then rehired by the studio several times: "there is no plot in your film" they told him.

Warner Bros.

It seems that at one point, there were two cuts of the film: Dominik's version and Brad Pitt's, the actor and primarily producer of the film. For a long time, all hope was buried of seeing that famous version from the filmmaker, until Roger Deakins, the legendary cinematographer who crafted the film's stunning photography, spoke about it in 2022 on Collider's microphone.

"I would really like the long version, the first cut I saw, to be released by Criterion" Deakins stated. "That's what I hope for... It was over three hours long. I don't think it will ever happen, because the last time I spoke with Andrew, he was quite satisfied with the version that was released. But I still remember that very first cut I saw, which was about three hours and fifteen minutes, I believe, and it was truly breathtaking."

In September 2017, Hugh Ross, who worked on the film both as the voice-over and as the first assistant editor, told Entertainment Weekly that he was impressed by the sequences that came to him and had no idea that the film would encounter such difficulties: _"We always had this feeling: 'We really love this. I wonder if anyone else will like it too?'"

Not the Warner executives, in any case. Ross recalls a screening organized for two studio executives as a particularly difficult moment. Once the film was over, he heard them discussing outside. "I remember very well that one of them said: 'What we really need is more shots of clouds drifting slowly!' And they both laughed. They said that right in front of me. They didn't care who I was. I just remember thinking: 'Wow, no one understands!" That's exactly what happened.

Warner Bros.

"Warner never understood what they had in their hands"

Released in the United States in September 2007, two years after filming ended and a year after the originally scheduled release date, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" was only screened in five theaters and earned just $147,812 during its opening weekend.

It was then shown on 301 screens and ultimately grossed just over half of its budget, with a worldwide revenue of $15.3 million. In France, it didn't even attract 300,000 viewers, despite the promise of its star cast. That says it all about the disaster...

"Warner really mishandled this project and never understood what they had in their hands. It has always completely baffled me, because the script is a very faithful adaptation of the book, and the film is exactly the script. I don't know what they expected" commented Hugh Ross. The paltry combination of theaters at its release was a pure and simple choice of the studio, which had no confidence in it: to sabotage a film's career, one couldn't do it any other way.

Since its release and its battered commercial fate, the film has fortunately benefited from overwhelmingly positive word of mouth, ultimately granting it the place it deserves: that of being one of the greatest and most beautiful films of the last twenty years.