Monday

As you may remember, three westerns came out last year. I reviewed one of them, Seraphim Falls, earlier this year. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford I still haven't seen, but I saw 3:10 to Yuma last week. It stars Christian Bale and Russell Crowe: the first as a man who is hired to escort the second, a dangerous prisoner, to a town where he is to catch the 3:10 train that will take him to prison in Yuma. This is classic western territory, and is indeed a remake of a 1957 film. It's directed by James Mangold, who after the interesting Cop Land is becoming more and more mainstream - Walk the Line and Girl, Interrupted. This film doesn't really contain the moral ambiguity of Seraphim Falls, and whilst Bale is good, Crowe is a bit too smug. It relies on a few cliches, but I can't deny that I enjoyed it, that the tension built well and the conclusion satisfying. This is a somewhat ordinary, but clear, classic western.