It's utterly fuckin' pathetic the way Warner Brothers has treated Andrew Dominik's tour-de-force masterwork THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD. Critics were generally pleased with the film but there were a few moron detractors out there. But critics aren't to blame for the failure of this landmark film. The execs at Warners are beyond retarded in my eyes. The $30 million art film that is JESSE JAMES has been treated like a bastard step-child by it's studio; they've been sitting on the film for over 2 years (!) in one form or another. They just had/have zero faith in the film being able to find an audience. And I am not stupid here...a 2 hour and 40 minute western with not a lot of action and a quiet, dreamy, Terry Malick-vibe may not be everyone's cup of tea. But the film deserves more than a $2.3 million domestic gross (per boxofficemojo.com as of a few minutes ago). Warners platformed the film in NY, LA, Austin, and Toronto in early September and have been quietly adding a few screens over the last few weeks. Advertising has been minimal (I live in LA and have only seen a few ads which means people living in fly-over country don't even know the film exists). Sure, the title is a bit long, but it's a majestic title that dares to be different; shouldn't there at least be a modicum of curiousity over a movie with a title this long and grammatically interesting? Playing on only 300 screens (give or take), the movie will start losing screens this weekend. If this epic, poetic, and unbelievably beautiful film is playing any where near you, you must check it out. It's the best film of the year.
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