10 Westerns You Need To Watch After Playing Red Dead Redemption 2

Where to start with The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford? Well, the title might be the most apt. Whilst giving away the most vital event of the film's plot, it provides its audience with an opportunity to invest themselves in the characters and their relationships without second-guessing what their fates will ultimately be. The title itself bears the style of a morally simplistic Old West dime novel, but the film's approach to its characters is anything but.

Granted, James is ultimately assassinated in a less-than-heroic fashion by Ford, but it's the two hour build-up to the event that betrays any preconceptions one may have had about these people and their motivations.

The Assassination Of Jesse James is not about James's murder but rather about Ford's gradual disillusionment with the man who was once his hero. The film opens with the James Gang participating in what will be their final robbery (and it will feel strikingly familiar if you've played RDRII's story), and Bob Ford has come along for the ride. Bob, who idolises Jesse and has avidly collected novels and newspaper clippings of his exploits, is shocked to find that his hero is in reality a jaded, cynical man with no interest in honour or heroics. The pedestal Bob has put Jesse on proves to be his undoing.

With breathtaking cinematography and wonderful performances all round, The Assassination Of Jesse James is a lyrical, heartbreaking deconstruction of the one of the west's greatest legends.