Robert Ford, who's idolized Jesse James since childhood, tries hard to join the reforming gang of the Missouri outlaw, but gradually becomes resentful of the bandit leader.
The last months of Jesse James's life, from meeting Robert Ford, a 19-year-old who idolizes Jesse, to the day Ford shoots him. Jesse's a wanted man, living under a pseudonym, carrying out a train robbery, disappearing to Kentucky, and reappearing to plan a bank holdup with Robert and Robert's brother as his team. The rest of the gang is dead, arrested, or gone from Missouri. Whenever Jesse's around, there's tension: he's murderous, quixotic, depressed, and cautious. Ford wants to be somebody and wants the reward. On April 3, 1882, things come to a head: Jesse is 34, Robert 20. Ford becomes famous, reenacting the shooting on stage, facing down the label "coward," shot dead in 1892.
Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
In the saloon scene, the "minstrel" is singing a memorial to Jesse James, the lyrics of which are based on the popular poem of the time, "The Ballad of Jesse James". Songs based on the poem have been recorded many times over the years, by artists such as, Woody Guthrie, Bob Seger, and The Pogues.
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Goofs
Incorrectly regarded as goofs:
At the end of the film, we see Robert Ford in his saloon / dance hall, "Ford's Exchange", which is an actual brick-and-mortar building. Later, when he is shot soon after by Edward O'Kelley, again in his own establishment, it is suddenly a tent saloon. This is because Ford's dance hall had been burned down in a town fire, three days prior to his shooting. In real life, Ford created this temporary location to operate out of while waiting to rebuild the dance hall seen earlier.
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Quotes
[first lines]
Narrator:
He was growing into middle age, and was living then in a bungalow on Woodland Avenue. He installed himself in a rocking chair and smoked a cigar down in the evenings as his wife wiped her pink hands on an apron and reported happily on their two children... See more »
Crazy Credits
The film does not contain neither an opening title nor intro credits. The film title is displayed first after the final fadeout.
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