Directed by Andrew Dominik and starring Brad Pitt, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford has been lauded by cinephiles as a revelation, a work of immense beauty and depth, and is widely considered in film circles to be one of 2007’s finest offerings. However, film fans aren’t the only ones who’ve taken a liking to it. Eric James, a relative of Jesse James and the President of the James Family Preservation Trust, has written a 5-page review of the film, which he’s posted on his website, Stray Leaves. In Mr. James’ opinion, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was more than a work of cinematic art; it’s the film the James family has been waiting for Hollywood to produce for well over 50 years. I recently had a chance to pose some questions to Mr. James, who offered a unique perspective on both the movie and the legendary American icon on whom it’s based.

Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions. Before we begin, may I ask how you are related to Jesse James?

I’m president of The James Preservation Trust, founded by myself and a Great grandson of Jesse James, the late Judge James R. Ross. The Trust preserves and makes available the history of the James family for educational purposes. I also publish the family’s web site, Stray Leaves. Additionally, I’m archivist for the Joan Beamis Research Archive, that produced the first history of the Jesse James family, published in 1970 by The Kentucky Historical Society (Joan Beamis, now deceased, is a great granddaughter of Frank and Jesse’s uncle, Drury Woodson James). Presently I am writing a new history of the family. Like Joan Beamis, I descend from a different line of the family, other than from Frank or Jesse. Most among the family don’t advertise their relationship. Those who do advertise themselves as a Jesse James relative, most assuredly are not, and that includes Mr. Sandra Bullock. (Note: Sandra Bullock’s husband is Jesse James, the founder of West Coast Choppers).

It’s clear from your review of the film that you feel THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD is the first movie to deal honestly and accurately with Jesse James the man, as opposed to the legend. Is this feeling shared by other members of the James family?

Historically, Hollywood and its producers have repeatedly deceived the James family, by promising to produce an authentic depiction of Jesse James. Darryl Zanuck, of 20th Century Fox, personally wooed Jesse’s Granddaughter to obtain film rights. Out of Hollywood’s 43 attempts to bring Jesse to the big screen, all failed miserably. Even the attempt by Jesse Jr., in which he portrayed his own father, was a flop. There’s no doubt the disaster lead to Jesse Jr.’s psychiatric breakdown, further inflicting more pain and grief on the family. For a long time, the Jesse James family has viewed Hollywood with suspicion, as it does for most writers who write about Jesse James. This film broke with tradition and depicts the man, Jesse James, as opposed to the tabloid outlaw, the action figure, or the legend. As a result it’s garnered our support, and also the respect of those historians who write authentically about Jesse James.

Why do you think it’s taken so long for a fair and accurate film on Jesse James to surface?

Jesse James has been burnished into the American psyche as a mythological figure. This resulted from 125 years of sensationalistic writing, having little to do with reporting fact or truth. Film is about entertainment first. Rarely can film represent reality as it occurred. Only Andy Warhol appeared to grasp how realty entertains. Hollywood is no Warhol. Add the financial requisite for a return on investment, and the stew becomes a recipe for film failure.

The film is based on a novel of the same name, written by Ron Hansen, which you applaud on your website for its attention to detail and historical accuracy. With so much legend surrounding the life and death of Jesse James, what resources were made available to Mr. Hansen so that he could ‘set the records straight’? Were these sources of information new, or have they simply been ignored by countless others over the years?

The resources available to Mr. Hansen have been available to anyone willing to research them. Even though written as a fiction, Hansen’s book endures with high respect because it is authentic to period and character detail. Dominik and Pitt translated that same essence to the screen. Some audiences may question Jesse James in a bowler hat, walking the high rise streets of a big city. It’s not what they’ve been conditioned to expect. Yet, factually, Jesse James did walk the streets of New York.

One of the things that struck me about THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD is how beautiful the film is, thanks in no small part to the rich and vibrant cinematography of Roger Deakins. What was your reaction to the look and feel of the film?

Rhapsodically, some have called this movie an art film. Not quite Jean Cocteau in my estimation, but definitely close to John Ford. When the art in every day life appears on screen, the art becomes transformational. Spielberg’s ability to make art of a Nazi concentration camp sent the signal that something more than entertainment was offered by his film. Nourishment for the soul was being provided. Star Wars did that in a different artful manner. When film becomes art, the longevity of the film becomes assured. This Jesse James movie will find new audiences, generation after generation to come, because it is both art and entertainment.

I see the majority of the film was shot on location in Canada. How do you feel these settings compare to the actual places in Missouri, where Jesse James lived and died?

Those Canadian plains today are home to members of the Younger family of the James gang. They feel perfectly comfortable there. What was more striking for me were the interiors and art direction. Many of them reflected ancestral James homes that still exist, in particular, the Black Horse Tavern in Midway, Kentucky, where Frank and Jesse’s mother was born. Then there’s the home of her uncle, Judge James Madison Lindsay, in Stamping Ground, where Frank and Jesse’s parents were married, not to mention the Sears catalogue addition Frank James bought and appended to the James Farm in Kearney, Missouri. Both Kentucky homes are not too distant from the farm of Sam Shepard, who plays Frank James. Recently I was contacted by a great granddaughter of the gentleman who owned the business two doors down from Bob Ford’s saloon in Creede, Colorado, when Ford was killed. She stated the movie realized the location with such accuracy that she actually saw on the screen what her great grandfather told to her family long ago. The art direction of this movie was created without access to that primary source information.

With Brad Pitt in the title role, who is surely one of the most recognizable stars working in film today, are you surprised by how little support THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD received from the studio? Why do you believe it wasn’t given a wider release?

On the surface, the studio wanted a shoot-em-up. The studio wanted a star-licious action figure. The studio wanted the adolescent audience. Pitt and company delivered a deeply involving character study, the theme of which essentially excoriates today’s adolescent celebrity culture. Beneath the surface, I’d like to see the contractual ownership terms for this film, and who delivered the $30 million for production. I’m guessing Brad Pitt out-foxed Warner Brothers (Pun intended). As a fellow Missourian who knew the Jesse James culture, the role became Pitt’s dream project. Warner’s withered under Pitt’s box office appeal. When Warner’s viewed on the screen something it didn’t bargain for, they pulled the plug and orphaned the movie, but not first without a lot of tampering to attempt to reduce its artistic achievement downward to box office acceptability. In the end, Warner’s compromised itself to word-of-mouth promotion only. No ads. No interviews. Beset by irreconcilable differences, the film toured film festivals. Still no promotion. Then life imitated art. Warner Brothers assassinated THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES…

Back to Brad Pitt, who gives what I believe is one of his finest performances ever in the role of Jesse James. One of the more interesting facts pointed out on your website is how much Brad Pitt resembles the real Jesse James. You even post photos of Pitt in full make-up next to those of Jesse’s descendants to prove this point. Aside from the physical, what else did Pitt bring to the role that impressed you?

I expect Pitt’s Oscar worthy performance to be overlooked. However, Jesse James historians and aficionados will return to Pitt’s performance again and again to mine its nuances and riches. Much of the real Jesse James appears as subtext under Pitt’s consummate command of his character. Jesse resides in what Pitt doesn’t say. In effect, the public meets Jesse James as they would in real life, with his public persona on display, masking a very complicated person beneath. This is gifted acting to which all serious actors aspire. Pitt’s Jesse James is likely to remain unsurpassable for a long time to come.

There were other fine performances throughout the film as well, including Casey Affleck (as Robert Ford), Sam Rockwell (as Charlie Ford) and Sam Shepard (as Frank James). Which performance, aside from Pitt’s, did you find the most convincing, the most historically accurate?

I audibly winced when I first viewed Sam Shepard as Frank James. That’s only happened to me when I’ve met James family members who resemble Frank. Like Pitt, Shepard had Frank’s character nailed. Of course, Pitt comes from Jesse James country in Missouri. Shepard comes from Jesse James country in Kentucky. Both performances display the advantage. Casey Affleck’s creepiness is subversive. How does an actor come by such pathology? There’s nothing more frightening than knowing you are experiencing the mental illness of someone, and not the representation of it. Like movie stars, the James family is bedeviled by this disease repeatedly; Stalkers, sycophants, wannabes, family claimants. These circumstances are very familiar to the James family today. Casey Affleck’s performance was too familiar and true for me. I respect his performance highly. But I can’t say I’d ever be comfortable meeting him.

Another interesting fact I read on your website is that the original cut of THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD was nearly four hours long. It was edited down to two hours and forty minutes, its current runtime, at the studio’s request. However, it did play at least one time at its original length, did it not? Have you received any input from audience members of this initial screening as to how the film played at this longer length?

I believe the Venice Film Festival saw the entire film. That’s where Pitt picked up the Best Actor Award. They called the movie “majestic.” It’s not been called that since.

In a recent interview with “Time Out London”, the film’s director, Andrew Dominik, commented that, while he didn’t feel this longer version of the film was the best one (“it’s not an undiscovered masterpiece, put it that way”, were Dominik’s exact words), he did believe that he was forced to remove some “great stuff” in order to make the film work at a shorter length. Do you have any idea of what these additional scenes might have contained?

Clearly the editing of the film for commercial release has lead to criticisms of the movie. Much was said about the voice-over devise. I suspect it was necessitated by story that was cut. Mary-Louise Parker, as Jesse’s wife Zee, is touted in the film’s promotion. Neither her casting nor appearance warranted the promotion. I suspect the longer version displayed more of the relationship between Jesse and Zee. As a first cousin of Jesse, Zee proved to be quite a complicated character in real life. Controversy enwrapped the pacing of the film. The pacing problems may not have been evident if the edited content was kept in. I personally liked the leisurely flow, believing it takes time to know these complex characters. The length of the movie didn’t bother me, but I live with these people on a daily basis. Audiences no longer sit through double features. If they did, perhaps a four hour movie would have a market.

I see that the DVD of the film, slated for release on February 5th, contains little else aside from the movie itself. However, it’s common practice nowadays for a director to eventually release his original cut of a film to the home video market. Do you believe director Dominik will follow suit, and release his original four-hour vision on DVD at a later date? Who can fans of the film contact in order to make this a reality?

Someday, there need’s to be a director’s cut released. I’ve already noticed some small screenings of the film popping up in college venues and small towns. Bootleg versions have been available for a while. I expect more small screenings may be coming. This film is too good not to develop a following. I don’t believe it will achieve cult status outside of Jesse James interest groups. Eventually, the movie will break even and enter the profit column, but it’s going to take a lot more acknowledgment and exposure from the general public before any investment can be made into issuing a director’s cut. Those usually don’t come until a film’s market is seasoned and the movie is universally recognized as a classic. I’d still continue to badger Warner Brothers.

Meanwhile, I’m still looking for my own personal interview with Brad Pitt. Clearly he transposed his consideration of celebrity issues to this film. I’d like to ask how his new-found emphasis on his family may have impacted his portrayal of Jesse James. Also, one of our family members tattooed Brad and Angelina before the film premiered in New York. They’re sworn to secrecy, but I’d like to ask Brad if Angelina’s name is tattooed on his six-pack, as some of the press reported. There’s probably no chance of an interview, though. My former wife produced a film once with Angelina’s father, Jon Voight. I believe Jon and Angelina remain estranged. I’d like to ask Angelina if she saw what I saw in her husband’s depiction of Jesse James…that his Jesse sensed all the opportunities for a loving relationship with his family were escaping him, simply because time ran out. And then the tragedy of it all…It did.

Mr. James, thank you for your time and for your unique insight into what I believe is one of 2007’s finest films.