Jesse James, the Bourgeois Bandit: The Transformation of a Popular Hero

Christopher Anderson's essay about the famous outlaw examines the ways alike and dissimilar in which Jesse James has been portrayed through the years in cinema.  He thinks that the first James movie was a tragedy, whereas the second was a farce.  This contrasts drastically the Andrew Dominik film, which is rather an intense, multi-layered character study, exploring the coward Robert Ford just as deeply as the outlaw.  Anderson believes that a historical film, such as these, cannot contain elements of comedy, tragedy, irony, and romance, which, ironically, are all present in Dominik's take on the tale.  This revision of the notorious bandit, with its long runtime, was able to explore all of these themes of Jesse and Robert's lives.  These immortalized characters, believe it or not, were once real people, who ran the whole gamut of human life.  These men had their laughs and their love, and their fair share of tragedy as well.  I think had Anderson written this essay after watching Dominik's film, that many of his points would need to be revised.

This scene above, from Ford's "The Quiet Man", is a great example of the style of humor that John Ford employs in his films.  We have two inebriated characters who begin a foolish fight in a pub and then take to the streets, fighting through the village.  At one point, they even stop for another drink.  While many of Ford's films have a heavy, dramatic climax in which the protagonist finds a resolution, "The Quiet Man" has a climax laden with levity, from the goofy start to the fight to the pause to get some more beer.  With all of the films John Ford has directed, it is easy to overlook this gem, which is very different than those in his Western repertoire.

I recently watched the film "Breathless", director Jean-Luc Godard's first film.  It is about a young criminal Frenchman who models himself after Hollywood characters.  After killing a police officer, he hides out with his American girlfriend.  She betrays him and tells the police, who end up killing him in the streets.  The way this film shows how cinema affects our lives is intriguing.  Michel, the protagonist, takes his look from Humphrey Bogart, and he even quotes lines from older movies when he speaks.  He shows no remorse for his slaying of the officer, giving him a morally desensitized demeanor.  This film is possibly the first to explore some of the negative effects of cinema upon its viewers.