3:10 To Yuma - (2007) - 9/10

I had a couple hours to kill this afternoon before I left for the crazy wedding weekend so I wanted to watch 310 to Yuma again with the commentary by director James Mangold. This movie totally re-establishes the modern western as a force to be reckoned with as the powerful presence of Russel Crowe and Christian Bale really capture the timeless themes of honor and family in this time period while also giving us modern action scenes that really complement the great steady cam work and scenery. Mangold managed a pretty engaging commentary as he talked about the reasons he wanted to remake this movie with these new stars as opposite ends of the spectrum who basically square off against eachother. I liked the passion he showed for trying to create a type of hyper-realism to the sets, costumes, and scenery so that when he picks up the pace with mixing close-ups with long shots, you really get a sense of being there within the gunfights and chases. He examines this underlying theme of Christian Bale's character battling with the outlaw Russel Crowe as the role model for his young son, going so far as to give them monalogues that show the good and bad sides of each guy so that we see the 3 dimensional humanity within each as not just one sided.

From deciding when to balance Marco Beltrami's score over special effects and such, Mangold really brought a kinetic energy and comradery within the movie that elevates it above others in this genre. The chemistry and match of wits b/w Crowe and Bale is almost like a micrcrosm for the entire movie that shows these conflicting ideals of violence and honor so that we don't really know who to root for. Ben Foster as Crowe's sidekick was the ultimate badass too and really brought up this sense of evil where he has no emotions or fear of killing people to save his boss. From the great stagecoach robbery to the camera moving finale, 310 to Yuma incorporates all the small character scenes with amazing cinematography and backgrounds so that you really care about what happens at the end and respect the struggle you experienced to get there. I hope more Westerns like this start to appear.