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I Shot Jesse James – 1949 Fuller
- Sam Fuller’s debut, and in typical Fuller fashion it was shot on
almost no-budget in 10 days.
- Much of the acting in Fuller’s filmography is suspect— but John Ireland
here is one of the exceptions—he’s tremendous as the infamous coward Bob Ford.
The scene of him telling the ballad singer to sing the song about him to his
face. This is the same year for Ireland as All
the King’s Men– an impressive year
- Fuller’s close-ups, digging into the frazzled psyche headspace
of his characters- a trait
- Fuller has an investigative streak in him—unveiling— to get
the seedy underbelly, the ugly truth
- Fuller’s first shot is a confident one, what a starting, peeling
back off of a close-up, and his first scene is a murderous robbery
- Wipe edits
- It isn’t a big deal but I think the Kelley character calls Ford “Miller”
even though he knows him already
- Fuller goes bananas with the newspaper montages to give us
exposition and he also gives us title cards for exposition, too—pick one, Sam—too
much- a flaw
- Jesse James here is dead in 25 minutes
- This film can’t shine the shoes of Andrew Domink’s 2007 masterpiece
The Assassination of Jesse James
- The shootout finale is a highlight—the Kelley character (played
by Preston Foster who is first billing somehow over Ireland) is framed by the
swinging doors of the saloon. As he walks out to find Ireland’s Ford, Ireland
is in soft focus from behind. There are some editing issues as when you cut
between the close-up of Ireland and Kelly the lighting doesn’t match
- Recommend but not top 10 of the year quality film
Drake2020-07-03T10:28:07+00:00
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