3:10 to Yuma

Yeah, the remake. I know nothing about the original so I won't be commenting on any differences or pontificating on the pointlessness of remakes in general. Yeah, it's uncreative and a little too common now, but I don't see a problem bringing back a fifty year old Western I hadn't heard of before. I'm not sure how I feel about Westerns. The setting is one uniquely nostalgic to the United States, and it's almost like the mythology of what's a pretty young country. It's the equivalent of the middle ages in Europe. There have been lots of really great moments in Western films, but I usually find them a little boring in execution. The Searchers may be a classic, but it sure got difficult sitting through it. The genre's definitely slowed down over the last few decades, but they still come out with a new film every couple years and Deadwood was pretty popular, although the movies that were supposed to end it don't look like they're happening. 3:10 to Yuma is one of the more enjoyable examples I've seen, although I'm definitely no expert.

A big part of its success is the immense talent of its two leads, Christian Bale as the honest man who'd do anything for his family and Russell Crowe as the infamous criminal who might not be as bad as he seems. I'm definitely glad it stars them instead of the originally intended Tom Cruise and Eric Bana. The strength of Westerns to me has always been the unique style and badass sensibility you see in the dialogue and action scenes. Yuma definitely has that, with some good one-liners and shootouts. But it has more too, with a unique chemistry between the stars who should be butting heads but really aren't, and some poignant scenes. Mangold's done some decent films before and seems to know how to direct. The only disappoinment was Wash from Firefly's not-that-funny doctor character. He can do better than this. His and Luke Wilson's small parts kind of broke the suspension of disbelief, since I didn't really buy them in the time period. I think pretty much all the roles in non-contemporary films should be played by either unknowns or really good actors, otherwise it doesn't quite work. Still, it was a lot more enjoyable than what I'd expect from a two hour Western.