“Jesse James Unchained” Movie Review

 

“Jesse James Unchained”

Movie Review

 

The film "Jesse James Unchained," directed by Henrique Couto and written by John Oak Dalton, stars Henrique Couto, John French, John Bradley Hambrick, and Joe Kidd. It tells the tale of Jesse James, one of the most famous outlaw legends of the old west. After escaping from captivity, Jesse is on the run and determined to settle one final debt before permanently vanishng.

In the opening narration of Jesse James Unchained, a voiceover discusses the good and evil that exist in everyone of us and asserts that Jesse James is only viewed as being wicked because he fought for the Confederate. A video clip showing Union soldiers brutally shooting a guy escaping in the back illustrates this idea.

After that, a conversation between Jesse and Frank (Joe Kidd) is cut to (John Bradley Hambrick). Jesse isn't as worried about Frank eating a bullet because he's prepared to calm down beforehand.

It's difficult to say for sure because many of his comments are virtually impossible to comprehend. This will be a problem for the whole of the movie because Hambrick appears to have difficulty speaking loudly enough to be heard. The brothers eventually split out, and the next scene shows Jesse confronting someone for using his name in the brothers' own thefts. This leads to Jesse traveling across the unburned countryside and experiencing memories to a Civil War reenactment with a parking lot full of buses in the backdrop, as well as film of a minor grass fire, CGI flames superimposed over a picture of a forest, and footage of a tiny grass fire. What was in the backdrop, however, probably didn't matter given that there is no attempt made to hide the modern, mass-produced clothing and props in the movie. In fact, when it comes to blatant failure to even attempt to make the movie appear historically correct, Jesse James Unchained is right there with The Siege of Robin Hood.

 

The main character, Jesse, is captured by Belle, a female bounty hunter (Rachael Redolfi). He is handcuffed to her, and naturally, the key disappears. This is an issue since Toothless John (Keith Tomlin), Mitt (Eric Widing), and Red (John French), the three partners of the man he shot earlier, want him dead before he kills them or divulges their trade secret.

Jesse and Belle could have traded insults while attempting to avoid being shot by the real bad guys in this comedy western. Although it isn't an original plot, I have no doubts that John Oak Dalton, the author, could make it work.

Instead, he and the film's director Henrique Couto dish out an abundance of drab language and the odd boring flashback to Frank and Jesse's time as outlaws. The mythologizing of Jesse James and the Confederacy seems to be Jesse James Unchained's primary goal rather than really conveying a narrative or entertaining viewers. Jesse is portrayed as a good-hearted criminal whose only genuine transgression was killing a man whom he mistook for the Union officer who amputated one of Jesse's pals' fingers in order to steal a ring he was wearing. Both those he killed in the course of his crimes and his involvement in the Centralia Massacre are utterly disregarded.

The script's problems are made worse by the horrendously subpar production values on display. Lovers of revisionist history, particularly those who discuss "The War of Northern Aggression," may like Jesse James Unchained. The majority of them will be bored.

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