FORWARD: Once again, I am perusing deeper themes while looking at only a few movies. However, this review will probably not serve as a review per-say, where an amount of discussion is spent over the qualities of the movies. The movies cited are as examples to discuss deeper themes of character and qualities attributed to a movies plot.
"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" is to be my chief example for this review, for the reason that after speaking with an individual who had seen some of this movie they had come to the conclusion that they did not like it based on the personification of the characters. In this movies case, the question can be honestly raised, whether or not that was the point. The facts of "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" are well researched, and it is therefore evident that what this film is laying down is an amount of truth that is not often seen in movies of its genre.
Westerns in general are very character driven, it is rooted in the fabric of the western in that they are so often about the rouge bandits traversing the desert looking for a bank to rob. This is very different from the reverse of this which comes up too particularly in war films where the characters are usually driven by something past what they can actually change. In ether case, what is being seen is an example of the marriage between character and story.
Back to "The Assassenation of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford". This movie becomes an example of the kind of movie people do really like to see, because the plot is totally driven by the characters themselves. This fact makes the events more unpredictable, when there is something that sets the characters going besides their own driving force, one motif will dominate the film. In war movies, you can count on it that those tried and true motifs will play through the film; you cannot get three inches into most war films without all the heroism, camaraderie, in the face of evil blood thirsty Nazi's. It is when war films spin the trials of the war toward an individual that they surpass what interest can be drawn by the basic motifs, "Paths of Glory" takes the war time base and spins it toward a more individualistic perspective. The simple fact of all this is, letting the character take the wheel of a movie will always lead to twists and turns for a more interesting plot. Frankly, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" breaks from the bounds of the classic western by not letting itself all the way into that genre where, although character driven, the characters come almost pre-pacaged for the movie.
So, to the contrary of what my fellow movie watcher said, the characters in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" might not be totally admirable but that is not the goal of this movie. By not being admirable, they give the story dimension that is lost in movies that suffocate in the motifs of their genre. It is easy to say 'Maybe the characters where supposed to be like that.' but harder to say why that would be the case. The movies here allow for great story to come from the less admirable but necessary character.
Just for the sake of continued discussion, characters do not need to be less admirable for the plot to be more interesting. "Lars and the Real Girl" show this. Again, a movie that is totally character driven and not lost to any particular theme. "Lars and the Real Girl" may have taken the easy way out by choosing not to really fit into any particular genre, set that aside, and the chance is made to break stereotypes that might have arisen had the movie fit into a particular genre. And again, "Lars and the Real Girl" has only admirable characters. It is true that sometimes an audience to this movie might not find the characters admirable, but it is only ever the case that changes in character are temporal and come from the plot driven by those living it.
The facts of character and story are simply that you cannot have one without the other, that is really obvious. But sometimes less obvious is what blending of character and themes of plot make for the most interesting experience. In the end, the more character is in the experience, the more interesting and versatile experience can be. It does not always limit a movie to have the plot come before the character holding it, "Apocalypse Now" does not loose the interest of experiencing the movie just because the main character is driven by things he could not control. The perfect mix of character and story is only a generalization, but it is safe one to make and has very clear cut reasons for being.