YMMV / The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

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• Alternative Character Interpretation: While it's commonly accepted that Jesse did allow Bob to kill him, why he did it is more unclear: did he see it as his only way to atone for his crimes or was he simply tired of running away from the law all the time and wanted an out?
• Award Snub:
  • While the film made a number of critical top ten lists, it was nominated only for Best Supporting Actor and Cinematography, winning neither. Special mention must go to Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' beautiful score which didn't make the list of nominees.
  • There's also, unfortunately, not even a category at most awards shows for the narration by Hugh Ross, which gave the film so much of its unique effect.
• Awesome Music: The entire soundtrack, particularly during the titular death scene. It's written by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, who also supplied the sountrack to The Proposition.
• Cult Classic: Despite bombing in theaters and receiving a polarized reception from audiences who saw it when it was initially released, the film's nonetheless developed a small but very devoted fanbase in the years following. It received a revival screening in 2013 and it's now considered to be one of the greatest Westerns ever made, with it gaining renewed interest whenever it appears on a streaming service.
• Ending Fatigue: The title event occurs about two hours into the film, but the film continues for more than a half hour, tracing the Ford brothers' lives for years after the event. Some viewers felt that the film should have wrapped up quickly after the murder, apparently failing to realize that Robert Ford is just as much a main character as Jesse James. A rumored director's cut that has yet to see the light of day supposedly continues for a full two hours after the murder.
• Epileptic Trees: It's often believed that the man who shouted "Coward!" to Bob during his reenactments of Jesse's murder was Frank James, but this has never been verified or confirmed.
• Jerkass Woobie: Both Jesse James and Robert Ford. Jesse is a murderous bully and Ford is a sniveling snake-in-the-grass, yet both are so beat up by their problems that you can't help but feel for them.
• Memetic Mutation: The film's infamously long title spurred a meme of replacing the two nouns with other characters.
• Misaimed Fandom: As per the historical precedent, there are a group of viewers who still see Jesse as being a hero and all-around wonderful person.
• Older Than They Think: Many people think that this film was one of the first to examine the fallacy in romanticizing Jesse James and despising Robert Ford. However, I Shot Jesse James also featured a sympathetic portrayal of Robert Ford and largely dealt with Jesse and Robert's friendship. The main difference is that I Shot Jesse James took a lot more artistic liberties with history and focused more on Robert's life after Jesse's death than this film did.
• Signature Scene:
  • The titular assassination scene.
  • The halting of the train thanks to featuring some of the coolest cinematography in the entire film, as well as its nearly shot-for-shot recreation in Red Dead Redemption 2.
• The Woobie: Bob, especially in real life where he's labelled a coward and sadly is only remembered for that. To add insult to injury, his grave even just states: "Robert Ford: The Man Who Shot Jesse James". Ouch.

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