osolis

I can understand why western fans might like this film. I love westerns, but this one doesn't work for me. It's so full of posturing and attitude that I just roll my eyes. Someone forgot to mention that Billy was 21 when he died. Most twenty one year old men don't look like they're in their thirties (which Kristofferson was). He was also slightly built and tended not to drink. He also didn't tend to wear a cowboy hat, his favorite hat being a sombrero (this is what Pat Garrett noted). Most importantly, many recent biographies note that the Kid wasn't a killer with a grin. Of the four main killings attributed to him, two were in self defense, another was the result of a bullet ricocheting off the wall during his final escape. Only the killing of the deputy with the shotgun (during that same escape) was intentional (it should be noted that very same deputy had been pretty mean to The Kid). He may also have killed five more men as a result of shootouts between The Regulators (of which he was one) and The House, during the Lincoln County War. Also, Pat Garrett wasn't some guy who tumbled into bed with three hookers. He didn't saunter off at the end like it's "mission accomplished". In real life, after shooting Billy the Kid, he and his two deputies spent the night in the house of Pete Maxwell, frightened that the townspeople, many of whom were The Kid's friends and genuinely loved him, would try to kill them. It should be noted that in the film they're good buddies where as in real life, according to historians, Pat and Henry McCarty weren't generally seen to be friends, just acquaintances.

This movie reminds me of Bonnie and Clyde with the way it plays so fast and loose with many of the facts that the characters are Bonnie and Clyde in name only. The difference, tho, is that Bonnie and Clyde is a genuinely good film. Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid could have been a great film, but it just isn't. It's a typical western that wastes a legendary time in history.

I enjoyed this film. It has a dreamy quality to it and has an element of mystery. The design is nicely evocative and the pacing is almost languid. If this is the intention then bravo, because it perfectly captures what Alex, the titular vampire, must feel through the century plus of his undead life. Night after night of ceaseless existence which must be filled with stimulation and not just the stimulus of hunting humans. It captures the loneliness that such a creature, still endowed with all the normal feelings that he once knew in his human life, must endure. In fact, it captures this better than "Interview With A Vampire" does.

If you seek a bloodbath, look elsewhere. This is a vampire film about longing and despair and well worth a viewing.

It's been a long time since a film brought tears to my eyes, not just for the emotional finish (which it has), but rather for the sheer joy of watching a true work of art. From the first frame to the last, I was spellbound by the sheer beauty of this study of two men, one a sociopath outlaw, the other a naive young man who worships him.

Under the sure hand of director Andrew Dominck, the film takes it's time to tell it's story and this may be a problem for those who like fast cuts (I'd be surprised if the release on DVD contains more that a thousand shots). It is best to just surrender yourself to the film and be taken into it's beautifully photographed world.

The music is haunting and deserved a nomination and if awards were handed out for voice overs and narration this would be the winner.

The acting is top notch, with Brad Pitt as Jesse James notching a career high, in a performance that is both poetic and frighteningly cold. But it's Casey Affleck to whom the film belongs to. He may have been a best supporting actor in the eyes of the Academy Awards but it's really a best actor performance. Where other films have gotten it wrong in the depiction of Robert Ford is that they have made him a cartoon, while here we have a human being with all the failings and yearnings of someone who gets what he wants only to have it all fall apart. It is for this reason that the ending is, without giving anything away, emotionally wrenching.

In years to come it is this very film that will stand out as the best film released in 2007. I look forward to the day it will be given the Criterion treatment on DVD.