Once again, I feel like I've seen a completely different film than everybody else here.
Mangold's 3:10 to Yuma is less inspired by the original--and other low-key but profound westerns of the 50s--than it is by the operatic works of Sergio Leone; in particular, we have elements ripped directly from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (all the various "adventures" in the journey to Contention) and Once Upon a Time in the West (the whole railroad issue), all of it scored in direct homage to Morricone.
This would be all well and good if the script weren't so facile; whereas the original was a gripping pyschological study of battling moralities (it was very much a Cold War western), the new movie simplifies everything into a not so gripping study of battling Red Staters vs. Blue Staters (it's very much a Bush-era western): family is paramount while an independent lifestyle is seen as a threat. (On top of all this, the movie also comes across like a 70s disaster film--gather together a group of people and see who makes it out alive by the end of the film.)
The new 3:10 to Yuma is an example of what I like to call Straight Male Camp; whereas Gay Camp takes its conventions--outsized female characters, sexuality, emotionalism--to the nth degree (see Valley of the Dolls or Mommie Dearest), Straight Male Camp takes its conventions--stolid masculinity, honor, power, who has a bigger dick--to the nth degree, and 3:10 to Yuma is a prime example. This folds in neatly with the whole family aspect of the movie--which is a further representation of the infantilization of American culture--by having the final showdown not a battle of psychological wills (as it was in the original) but a battle for determining whether "family values" will prevail--and the ending, by allowing the "bad" guy to violently reject the alternative, clearly indicates where the filmmakers stand.
Russell Crowe is always a commanding presence, and his charm goes a long way to making the film enjoyable, but that's all he seems to be doing here. The appeal of Christian Bale continues to be a mystery to me--he plays every role with the same humorlessly obsessed determination, and this is no different (that said, his final scene is one of the best of its kind). Both fail to erase the memory of Glenn Ford's calculating villain and Van Heflin's nervous hero.
And then there's Ben Foster; he's obviously a talented fellow, but I just can't buy the praise for him here: it's a one-note performance, all mustache-twirling villain time, all those supposedly subtextual homoeroticism not so subtextual--he's a femme leather queen from the first frame. As if to add to his position as the great threat to society, his pistols (phallic symbol alert) are given an even louder "boom" than anybody else's in the film.
So, sure, the techs on the film are all aces--sets, costumes, art direction, cinematography, etc.--and despite some occasional great moments, I found myself more frustrated than anything else by this disappointment.
3:10 to Yuma - RCrowe, CBale, PFonda, GMol & BFoster
I just saw '3:10 to Yuma' with my class, and I was amazed at how much it improved. It had been a very '3:10 to Yuma' week for me, having read the short story, read the shooting script, and then seeing the film for a second time. And yet despite walking in trepidatious and dullened from overkill, the film flew right by. I have a few grave reservations cited in my previous paragraphs, but by in large '3:10 to Yuma' flies by like 40, 50 minutes. It's a great summer flick. Great score too. Absolutely fantastic score.
"How's the despair?"
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I saw it yesterday, and if Ben Foster isn't nominated for Best Supporting Actor, it will be one of Oscar's greatest injustices in a long time.
"Young men make wars and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution." -- Alec Guinness (Lawrence of Arabia)
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Sad.
I might be calling '3:10 to Yuma' one of the great summer flicks of my time. It's literally everything I want in escapist entertainment. And despite its shortcomings, I still mostly enjoyed the hell out of the thing...
...but...
Explain to me one reason why Ben Wade (russell crowe) did anything? There are literally 1000 ways he (or, fuck all, I!) could've escaped this motley crew's gunpoint ride. Ben Wade is a dangerous man and I understand his motivation for *why* he just moseys along to the 3:10 (for a Hollywood film, love that final shot; woulda be nice if the film had earned it tonally), but it still doesn't make sense. Russell Crowe has a lot of fun with the part; it's hardly great acting, but it's a good time. That's important because Christian Bale is acting wtih an enema for the fim's duration. This is the only time I have been completely underwhelmed with the actor's performance on any level. By the end of '3:10 to Yuma', it becomes clear that Mangold has just as much 'Butch Cassidy' on his mind as an Anthony Mann Western. I'd much have preferred staying true to the grit of a dark western, not a buddy western.
...it gets brownie points for its strong screenplay, excellent dialogue, damn good score, and just being a western on the big screen.
Also, the focus pulls are soft and there's little inspiration in any of the film's cinematography. If 'Once' is the worst shot little film of the year, this is the worst shot big one.
I might be calling '3:10 to Yuma' one of the great summer flicks of my time. It's literally everything I want in escapist entertainment. And despite its shortcomings, I still mostly enjoyed the hell out of the thing...
...but...
Explain to me one reason why Ben Wade (russell crowe) did anything? There are literally 1000 ways he (or, fuck all, I!) could've escaped this motley crew's gunpoint ride. Ben Wade is a dangerous man and I understand his motivation for *why* he just moseys along to the 3:10 (for a Hollywood film, love that final shot; woulda be nice if the film had earned it tonally), but it still doesn't make sense. Russell Crowe has a lot of fun with the part; it's hardly great acting, but it's a good time. That's important because Christian Bale is acting wtih an enema for the fim's duration. This is the only time I have been completely underwhelmed with the actor's performance on any level. By the end of '3:10 to Yuma', it becomes clear that Mangold has just as much 'Butch Cassidy' on his mind as an Anthony Mann Western. I'd much have preferred staying true to the grit of a dark western, not a buddy western.
...it gets brownie points for its strong screenplay, excellent dialogue, damn good score, and just being a western on the big screen.
Also, the focus pulls are soft and there's little inspiration in any of the film's cinematography. If 'Once' is the worst shot little film of the year, this is the worst shot big one.
"How's the despair?"
One of the reviewers for the Times Picayune gave 3:10 To Yuma his highest rating, four stars.
===
Taut, brilliant 'Yuma' will rope in viewers
Posted by mbscott September 07, 2007 8:00AM
Categories: Movie reviews
By Mike Scott
Movie critic
Call the undertaker. Looks like we're not going to need that pine box after all. Though it seems to go on life support every few years, the Hollywood Western is far from dead.
In the right hands -- such as those of director James Mangold ("Walk the Line," "Cop Land"), whose magnificent, muscular remake of "3:10 to Yuma" pulls into theaters today -- the genre is still plenty capable of generating deep, powerful drama, mixed in with heart-pounding action and punctuated by drop-dead gorgeous performances.
Russell Crowe, left, is taken away to justice in the superb remake '3:10 to Yuma.'Ever since director Delmer Daves first adapted the Elmore Leonard short story for the big screen in 1957, "Yuma" has endured in the hearts of movie fans, mostly because it's not your ordinary Western shoot-'em-up. This is a thinking-man's oater. And while Mangold's version is every bit as taut as the original, his is a slicker and deeper "Yuma."
Best of all, Mangold doesn't weigh down the film with a raft of unnecessary moving parts. Instead, all the action in "Yuma" centers around one simple but compelling story, one that grinds forward like a train leaving a station, moving slowly but determinedly as it picks up momentum and heads toward its inevitable destination.
The story centers on a down-on-his-luck rancher (Christian Bale) who volunteers to escort a ruthless gunslinger (Russell Crowe) to the train -- that would be the 3:10 -- that will take him to Yuma prison and, presumably, to the wrong end of a rope. It's a dangerous gig, since the train is a couple of days' ride away, in a town called Contention. But two hundred bucks, which is what the job pays, is a whole lot of scratch to a struggling rancher.
Christian BaleBisbee, the town in which their ride starts, is -- like the film itself -- populated by desperate men. The Southern Pacific Railroad chiefs are desperate to stop outlaw Ben Wade from knocking over stages, and Wade's gang is just as desperate to make sure the railroad men fail. Wade himself is desperate, too -- in a quiet, smoldering way -- to exact revenge on a world, and a God, that has wronged him.
Perhaps the most desperate character, though, is Civil War veteran and rancher Dan Evans -- Bale's character -- who is desperate to gain that most fundamental of things: honor, here in the form of respect from his wife and sons.
"I'm tired of watching my boys go hungry," Evans admits to his wife in one telling, and heartbreaking, scene as he defends his decision to risk his life for a $200 payday. "I'm tired of the way they look at me. I'm tired of the way you don't."
The brooding Bale plays Evans brilliantly, as the former warrior whose war injuries only continue to fester. He is humorless, he is scared, he makes mistakes -- he is just like you and me. That's why you can't help but sympathize with him, and root for him, as he single-mindedly limps toward the train to Yuma, with Wade in tow.
Russell CroweBut you also can't help but root for Crowe's Ben Wade, a dangerously charming killer defined by contradictions. (Wade creates delicate art when he draws his pencil-and-paper sketches. He destroys lives when he draws his sixguns, Crucifix-adorned weapons he calls "the Hands of God." He accomplishes both tasks with the same effortless, nonchalant air.)
And, damn, is he ever cool.
He charms the young boys (including Evans'), who all want to be him. He charms the pretty women (including Evans'), who all just want him. And he charms the grown men (including Evans), who all want to kill him.
Bale and Crowe are two of today's most talented actors, and they put on an acting clinic in "3:10 to Yuma," each taking command of the screen in every scene in which they appear. When they appear together, it is riveting.
But they're just two parts of a team that has created a raw and immensely immersing film. The camerawork -- witness the long tracking shots of Wade and Evans dashing for the train -- is expert. The same can be said of the score, with its subtle echoes of another classic Western, "High Noon," and its ceaseless "clock" (or is it a heartbeat?) reminding you that time is as much a part of the story as anything else.
Fifty years have elapsed since "3:10 to Yuma" last pulled into the station, but, man, was it worth the wait.
3:10 TO YUMA
4 stars, out of 4
Plot: A down-on-his luck rancher volunteers to escort a ruthless gunslinger to the train that will bring him to justice.
What works: Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are brilliant actors, and seeing them interact on-screen is an absolute treat.
What doesn't: Less patient movie-goers might find it a touch slow to get started.
Starring: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Peter Fonda. Director: James Mangold. Running time: 1 hour 57 minutes. Rating: R, for violence and some language. Where: Elmwood Palace, Clearview Palace, West Bank Palace, Hammon Palace, Hollywood 9 (Kenner), Grand (Slidell).
===
Taut, brilliant 'Yuma' will rope in viewers
Posted by mbscott September 07, 2007 8:00AM
Categories: Movie reviews
By Mike Scott
Movie critic
Call the undertaker. Looks like we're not going to need that pine box after all. Though it seems to go on life support every few years, the Hollywood Western is far from dead.
In the right hands -- such as those of director James Mangold ("Walk the Line," "Cop Land"), whose magnificent, muscular remake of "3:10 to Yuma" pulls into theaters today -- the genre is still plenty capable of generating deep, powerful drama, mixed in with heart-pounding action and punctuated by drop-dead gorgeous performances.
Russell Crowe, left, is taken away to justice in the superb remake '3:10 to Yuma.'Ever since director Delmer Daves first adapted the Elmore Leonard short story for the big screen in 1957, "Yuma" has endured in the hearts of movie fans, mostly because it's not your ordinary Western shoot-'em-up. This is a thinking-man's oater. And while Mangold's version is every bit as taut as the original, his is a slicker and deeper "Yuma."
Best of all, Mangold doesn't weigh down the film with a raft of unnecessary moving parts. Instead, all the action in "Yuma" centers around one simple but compelling story, one that grinds forward like a train leaving a station, moving slowly but determinedly as it picks up momentum and heads toward its inevitable destination.
The story centers on a down-on-his-luck rancher (Christian Bale) who volunteers to escort a ruthless gunslinger (Russell Crowe) to the train -- that would be the 3:10 -- that will take him to Yuma prison and, presumably, to the wrong end of a rope. It's a dangerous gig, since the train is a couple of days' ride away, in a town called Contention. But two hundred bucks, which is what the job pays, is a whole lot of scratch to a struggling rancher.
Christian BaleBisbee, the town in which their ride starts, is -- like the film itself -- populated by desperate men. The Southern Pacific Railroad chiefs are desperate to stop outlaw Ben Wade from knocking over stages, and Wade's gang is just as desperate to make sure the railroad men fail. Wade himself is desperate, too -- in a quiet, smoldering way -- to exact revenge on a world, and a God, that has wronged him.
Perhaps the most desperate character, though, is Civil War veteran and rancher Dan Evans -- Bale's character -- who is desperate to gain that most fundamental of things: honor, here in the form of respect from his wife and sons.
"I'm tired of watching my boys go hungry," Evans admits to his wife in one telling, and heartbreaking, scene as he defends his decision to risk his life for a $200 payday. "I'm tired of the way they look at me. I'm tired of the way you don't."
The brooding Bale plays Evans brilliantly, as the former warrior whose war injuries only continue to fester. He is humorless, he is scared, he makes mistakes -- he is just like you and me. That's why you can't help but sympathize with him, and root for him, as he single-mindedly limps toward the train to Yuma, with Wade in tow.
Russell CroweBut you also can't help but root for Crowe's Ben Wade, a dangerously charming killer defined by contradictions. (Wade creates delicate art when he draws his pencil-and-paper sketches. He destroys lives when he draws his sixguns, Crucifix-adorned weapons he calls "the Hands of God." He accomplishes both tasks with the same effortless, nonchalant air.)
And, damn, is he ever cool.
He charms the young boys (including Evans'), who all want to be him. He charms the pretty women (including Evans'), who all just want him. And he charms the grown men (including Evans), who all want to kill him.
Bale and Crowe are two of today's most talented actors, and they put on an acting clinic in "3:10 to Yuma," each taking command of the screen in every scene in which they appear. When they appear together, it is riveting.
But they're just two parts of a team that has created a raw and immensely immersing film. The camerawork -- witness the long tracking shots of Wade and Evans dashing for the train -- is expert. The same can be said of the score, with its subtle echoes of another classic Western, "High Noon," and its ceaseless "clock" (or is it a heartbeat?) reminding you that time is as much a part of the story as anything else.
Fifty years have elapsed since "3:10 to Yuma" last pulled into the station, but, man, was it worth the wait.
3:10 TO YUMA
4 stars, out of 4
Plot: A down-on-his luck rancher volunteers to escort a ruthless gunslinger to the train that will bring him to justice.
What works: Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are brilliant actors, and seeing them interact on-screen is an absolute treat.
What doesn't: Less patient movie-goers might find it a touch slow to get started.
Starring: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Peter Fonda. Director: James Mangold. Running time: 1 hour 57 minutes. Rating: R, for violence and some language. Where: Elmwood Palace, Clearview Palace, West Bank Palace, Hammon Palace, Hollywood 9 (Kenner), Grand (Slidell).
The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living. Oliver Wendell Holmes
Here is the poster currently showing at the imdb page for the film:Penelope wrote:By the way, have y'all seen the poster for this movie? I swear, it's the gayest thing since The Village People!
http://www.moviemaze.de/media/poster/2038/3-10-to-yuma.html
YEE HAH!
:p
The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living. Oliver Wendell Holmes
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rolotomasi99
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i am not sure about supporting actor, but i would say editing and sound are definite possibilities. i have had those two nominations on my short list for awhile now.
btw, do you think mccarthy was aware of the irony of the sentence "James Mangold's remake walks a fine line"?
...since james mangold directed WALK THE LINE. yeah, i just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.
btw, do you think mccarthy was aware of the irony of the sentence "James Mangold's remake walks a fine line"?
...since james mangold directed WALK THE LINE. yeah, i just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.
"When it comes to the subject of torture, I trust a woman who was married to James Cameron for three years."
-- Amy Poehler in praise of Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow
-- Amy Poehler in praise of Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow
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Hey, that's my line!Penelope wrote:As the diminishing group proceeds through renegade Apache territory and into a mountainous railway construction site, they are shadowed by Ben's remaining gang, headed in his absence by his No. 2, the psychopathic Charlie Prince (Ben Foster). If anyone's going to gain the most, career-wise, from "3:10 to Yuma," it will definitely be Foster, who puts the kind of indelible imprint on this juicy role that, in earlier eras, allowed such thesps as Lee Marvin, Richard Boone, Dan Duryea, James Coburn, Jack Palance, Lee Van Cleef, Strother Martin and others to immortalize themselves in the annals of Western villainy.
With his albino coloring, pinched mouth, reedy voice and remorseless wall-eyes, Foster's lightning-draw killer brandishes a dementia amplified by an intense loyalty to Ben that gently borders on homoeroticism; he'll do anything for his boss, for some reasons that are clear and for some that must be intuited. Foster is a mad delight to watch, and a reminder that the relative scarcity of Westerns deprives a generation of character actors of opportunities to shine.
Potential Best Supporting Actor nominee?
:p
With a Southern accent...
"Don't you dare lie to me!" and...
"You threaten my congeniality, you threaten me!"
-------
"You shouldn't be doing what you're doing. The truth is enough!"
"Are you and Perry?" ... "Please, Nelle."
"Don't you dare lie to me!" and...
"You threaten my congeniality, you threaten me!"
-------
"You shouldn't be doing what you're doing. The truth is enough!"
"Are you and Perry?" ... "Please, Nelle."
By the way, have y'all seen the poster for this movie? I swear, it's the gayest thing since The Village People!
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster