10 Movies You Can Never Finish

By Jack Pooley / October 8, 2021

7. The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

From its eye-rollingly overlong title onwards, Andrew Dominik's singular western is a film defined by its excesses, for as brilliantly acted as it is by Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, and as gloriously eye-watering as Roger Deakins' cinematography might be, this film is a pure endurance trial.

Clocking in at a meaty 160 minutes, Jesse James takes an abusively long time to tell its rather straight-forward titular story, with a stately, slight style that's likely to leave your eyes glazed over.

It's certainly atmospheric and intriguing, but an ultimately undisciplined piece of filmmaking which didn't need to be a minute over two hours - if that.