Review of I Shot Jesse James

*Mild Spoilers Within* This film is an interesting character study of Robert Ford (Ireland), the man who shot Jesse James. After shooting his best friend in the back for love, he must live with what he has done. Ireland is great as the remorseful, love-sick Ford. This is a neat first film by Sam Fuller, a newspaper man at heart. And you can definitely tell he likes the newspaper. He shows at least three sequences of headlines of newspapers to fill space in the narrative (the classic "spinning paper"). We can also see early on in his career that Fuller loves to mess with the audience. It's a very entertaining trick. For instance, after Ford has been shot at by the boy trying to become famous, a rider comes along shooting his gun. We think someone else is shooting at Ford. However, the rider is only excited because silver has been found in Colorado. I love how he plays with the audience! Fuller enjoys making you think for a split second that something bad is about to happen and then reveal that he's just joking around. He does this countless times throughout the film. Check this out if you want to see an unconventional western from the 40s. No classic-style here, just the beginning of a great independent director! 8/10