Dominik Talks “Jesse James” Longer Cut

Filmmaker Andrew Dominik’s 2007 revisionist Western “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” remains a modern masterpiece fifteen years on.

The film is celebrated for its Roger Deakins cinematography, strong performances and exquisite craftsmanship. At 160 minutes it’s a movie that moves at its own pacing, but people seem to have grown more open to long runtimes again in recent years.

With Dominik out doing early press for his Nick Cave and Warren Ellis documentary “This Much I Know to Be True” and prepping for the release of his Marilyn Monroe-inspired drama “Blonde” later this year, the New Zealand-born Australian-raised writer/director recently spoke with Collider about the rumored longer cut of the film.

A while back Deakins told the outlet in another interview: “I would really like to see the long version, the first cut that I saw, released on Criterion. That’s what I’d hope for… It was over three hours.” He then went on to say he saw a just over three-hour version and he thinks that a four-hour first cut exists.

Now, Dominik confirms a longer cut does exist:

“Listen, we tried to get Warner Bros. to allow us to release a longer version of it. They’re not interested in doing it, and I think somebody tried to petition Criterion to do it. Criterion were not interested in Jesse James.

There is a better version of Jesse James – in my opinion – that’s about 15 minutes longer. And that’s the one that Roger was talking about. He’s never seen one that’s longer than that.

There was a three-hour version, right? 15 minutes longer than what it is, three hours. There was never a four-hour version that was any good, believe me.”

Dominik says there are actually two other cuts – one five minutes longer than the theatrical, one fifteen minutes longer and he considers both better. One key difference between them is the longer version has a “great scene” but it ended up going by the wayside in the theatrical cut.

“This Much I Know to Be True” will show in theaters for a global cinema event on May 11th whilst “Blonde” will hit Netflix later this year.