The True Story of Jesse James

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The True Story of Jesse James

1957,

1h 32m,

Western

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Watchlist

88%

8 Reviews

Tomatometer

36%

250+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

88%

Tomatometer

8 Reviews

36%

Popcornmeter

250+ Ratings

Having fought with the Confederacy during the Civil War, Jesse James and his brother Frank dream of a farm life in Missouri. Harassed by Union sympathizers, they assemble a gang of outlaws, robbing trains and becoming folk heroes in the process. Jesse marries his sweetheart, Zee, and maintains an aura of domesticity, but after a group of lawmen launches an attack on his mother's house, Jesse plans one more great raid -- on a Minnesota bank.

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Oct 23, 2007

Though hardly Nicholas Ray's sturdiest effort, this 1957 'Scope western began as one of his more ambitious conceptions, with an unorthodox narrative structure and deliberately theatrical sets.

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Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Oct 23, 2007

Ray is one of the great natural filmmakers, a master of moral ambiguity and jittery mise-en-scene.

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Time Out

Oct 23, 2007

A fine Western, the only regret being Robert Wagner. Imagining Dean in the central role makes it one of the great might-have-beens.

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Jean-Luc Godard

Cahiers du Cinéma

Nov 3, 2021

That something has gone wrong from the point of view of the production is hardly in doubt; but not the direction, in which each shot carries the indelible mark of the most peculiarly modern of film-makers.

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Aug 30, 2009

B-

One of Nicholas Ray's weaker films, this mythical Western displays his thematic concern with protagonists that are outsiders but suffers from the performances of pretty boys Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter.

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Film4 Staff

Film4

Oct 23, 2007

Obviously the pair have a hard act to follow, but they manage it perfectly well, with Hunter particularly good in the brotherly sidekick role.

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Nicholas Ray

Director

Robert Wagner

Jesse James

Jeffrey Hunter

Frank James

Hope Lange

Zee James

Agnes Moorehead

Mrs. Samuel

Alan Hale Jr.

Cole Younger

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Synopsis

Having fought with the Confederacy during the Civil War, Jesse James and his brother Frank dream of a farm life in Missouri. Harassed by Union sympathizers, they assemble a gang of outlaws, robbing trains and becoming folk heroes in the process. Jesse marries his sweetheart, Zee, and maintains an aura of domesticity, but after a group of lawmen launches an attack on his mother's house, Jesse plans one more great raid -- on a Minnesota bank.

Director: Nicholas Ray
Producer: Herbert B. Swope Jr.
Screenwriter: Walter Newman
Production Co: Twentieth Century Fox
Genre: Western
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 12, 1957, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 27, 2020
Runtime: 1h 32m

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