Rather than accepting the new order, the James brothers turned on it. When the North won the Civil War, James took it personally. There were beheadings and disembowelments. At what is known as the Centralia massacre, skulls were broken, throats slashed, scalps taken and noses cut off. This was, according to the film, incredibly savage fighting. During the Civil War, he joined his brother Frank and other guerrillas fighting in the Missouri woods. But he felt he had an excuse.īorn in Missouri in 1847, James grew up in a household that was unequivocally, passionately pro-South. Actually, he was a ruthless, amoral killer. He thought of himself as a Southern hero. The point that Mark Zwonitzer, the documentary's writer, director and producer, really wants to make is that James was no romantic rebel and hardly a Wild West Robin Hood, as some have contended. In "Jesse James," the straightforward, slightly static "American Experience" documentary that has its premiere tonight on public television, he is described as a slight, boyish fellow (about 5 feet 6 inches tall, 120 pounds). Jesse James, the notorious 19th-century outlaw, is a hard guy to pin down. Brad Pitt is up next, in a film scheduled to open later this year. He has been played by Tyrone Power, Colin Farrell, James Coburn, Roy Rogers, Robert Duvall, Kris Kristofferson, James Dean (on CBS's "You Are There") and Rob Lowe.
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