Westerns often focus on the rip-roaring action of the genre, including the exciting gun fights and horse chases, but this film is not one of those. Instead, it’s a quiet, thoughtful and methodical piece, the length of which is only matched by the length of its title. The title even gives away the plot before the first reel begins, but as someone once said, the best part of a story is the journey.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is streaming for free this month on Fawesome. Directed by Andrew Dominik, the 2007 Western follows the outlaw Jesse James and Robert Ford, a young fella whose admiration and fascination with his hero turns into something a lot more sinister. We won’t spoil what happens, and the title certainly doesn’t tip you off or anything.
The cast includes Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Fight Club) as Jesse James, Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea, Gone Baby Gone) as Robert Ford, Sam Shepard (The Right Stuff, August: Osage County) as Frank James, Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds, Fried Green Tomatoes) as Zee James, Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Moon) as Charley Ford, Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, Wind River) as Wood Hite, Garret Dillahunt (Deadwood, No Country for Old Men) as Ed Miller, and Zooey Deschanel (New Girl, 500 Days of Summer) as Dorothy Evans.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
10
When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
Was ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’ Successful?
Critically? Sure, it was a big success, and it’s currently sitting at a “certified fresh” 76% score on the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads, “On the strength of its two lead performances, Assassination is an expertly crafted period piece, and an insightful look at one of the enduring figures of American lore.” A huge amount of the praise went to Affleck’s performance as Ford, and he received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 2008 Academy Awards.
Financially, though, this one was nothing short of a box office bomb. Against a reported budget of $30 million, it only grossed $15 million, so it was certainly not a hit for the studio, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth a watch. If anything, it just means not enough people saw it, and this is your chance to rectify that.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is streaming for free this month on Fawesome.
