Pitt plays Jesse James as outlaw who saw end coming
Mike Collett-White

VENICE—Brad Pitt plays the fabled U.S. outlaw Jesse James in a new film based on the days leading to his death at the hands of young protege Robert Ford.
“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” has a long title and, at 155 minutes, is a long movie which is in the main competition at the Venice film festival and has its world premiere on Sunday.
The Hollywood star portrays James — a bandit and heroic Robin Hood figure to many during his life and long after his demise — as a man tired of life on the run, who foresees his end is nigh and appears to hasten his death as a way of escape.
“I saw it ... as a guy who sensed impending doom, the inevitable end, who had been trapped in a facade and living an alias for so long and didn’t know a way around it,” Pitt told a news conference after a press screening.
“I find that more interesting, because it’s more human to me than this black and white characterization.”
New Zealand-born Andrew Dominik, directing only his second film, said he wanted to focus on the characters’ internal struggles more than the relationships between them.
“It’s kind of like life — you know, we struggle more with ourselves than other people,” he said of the film, based on Ron Hansen’s novel of the same title.
While James has more fame than he wants, Ford, played by Casey Affleck, dreams of filling his hero’s shoes one day.
A social misfit who is constantly teased and bullied, he gradually sees that his easiest path to stardom would be to kill the man he idolizes, and in the film he is hired by the governor of Missouri to bring James down.
GANGSTER MOVIE
The film takes in the intimate interiors of log cabins and saloons of 1880s America and pans to stunning shots of plains and rolling hills through the seasons.
But despite the subject matter and cinematography, Pitt said he saw it as more of a gangster movie than a Western.
The 43-year-old actor, who arrived in Venice with his partner and fellow Hollywood A-lister Angelina Jolie and their children, was also a producer on “Assassination.”
When asked if he might try his hand at directing, he said: “I don’t have the stones for it. I would probably go crazy and my feeling is there are too many good people doing it.”
Early critical reaction to the historical drama has been mixed, with journalists in Venice generally enthusiastic about the film but the Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt calling it pretentious and vacuous.
Pitt was asked about sustaining his career while having four children, and said it made him a much more efficient actor.
“That (the children) is the main focus and it is the most fun I have ever had,” he said. “It is also the biggest pain in the arse I have ever experienced. I love it and I can’t recommend it any more highly ... Sleep is non-existent.” Meanwhile, Brad Pitt and his partner Angelina Jolie are ready for another child, the actor said Sunday as he was promoting his new film.
Pitt and Jolie, with children in tow, were in Venice to talk about his film on Western outlaw Jesse James. The movie is competing for the top Golden Lion award at the city’s film festival.
Pitt and Jolie already have four children including a 15-month-old girl, Shiloh, born to the couple. Jolie has also adopted three children close in age from Cambodia, Ethiopia and Vietnam.
Asked by Italian state TV whether they were ready for a fifth, Pitt replied: “Yeah we’re ready.” He did not indicate whether they planned another biological child or if they would adopt.
Earlier on Sunday, Pitt told a news conference fatherhood was fun and good for his work, though he’s not getting much sleep.
“It’s the most fun I’ve ever had and also the biggest pain ... I’ve ever experienced,” he said when asked what it was like to become a family with four children in a short space of time. “I love it and can’t recommend it any more highly — although sleep is nonexistent.”
Having four small children “makes me much more efficient because when I work, I really have to focus. I know I’ve less time to get things done. Actually, I’m quite pleased by it,” said Pitt.