Just Like Jesse James

After nearly a year delay, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford will finally hit theaters next month. Starring Brad Pitt (pictured) and Casey Affleck, respectively, as the title characters, the western drama appears to be taking a similar path as another film on the subject, Samuel Fuller's 1949 I Shot Jesse James.

While watching the trailer for the new film, notice Affleck's Ford displays a disturbing fascination with the notorious outlaw. Pitt's James even asks Ford if he wants to "be like me, or you wanna be me?", which gets further homoerotically charged by the fact that he is sitting in a bathtub when he says it (shades of The Talented Mr. Ripley).

In Fuller's film, the director hints that Ford's eventual murder of James stemmed from the "twisted love/hate relationship" between the two. I Shot Jesse James also includes a scene with James (Reed Hadley) in a bathtub with Ford (John Ireland) looking on.

We will just have to wait and see how blatant this gay subtext will be in the latest retelling of the legend of Jesse James, which will hit theaters September 21.

Click here to purchase I Shot Jesse Jameson DVD from Amazon.com.
Links via Imdb.com, Movies.AOL.com and MovieMorlocks.com.