- directed by James Mangold
With a hefty payday at stake a desperate family man and rancher agrees to escort a vicious gang leader and dangerous fugitive onto a train to Yuma where his imprisonment awaits.
I think it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway :P ) that for the most part, I don't watch shitty movies. There's a standard that I hold films to. I'm pretty discerning. So 3:10 To Yuma is certainly a well-made film. It's great in that respect. Most of the technical aspects of the film are top notch. I found the cinematography and score to be the hallmarks of this film. There's much love to go around for this one. But, without spoiling anything, there was one part of this film that ruined the entire experience. That probably seems impossible, but it happened. It was a story element that became the rotten apple, the fly in the ointment. It spoiled what could have been a perfect film experience. So I have weird feelings about this film. I've several analogies I could use to frame the experience, but most of them are sexual in nature. :P There were huge chunks of this film to enjoy, there still are, but as a whole... the film just isn't... I don't know. This could very well be a love/hate situation. It's hard to tell where people will lie. I certainly fall into the hate category. Though I didn't really hate it. It's not a bad film. But it definitely taxes your ability to forgive. That one niggling issue ruined an otherwise perfect Western for me. So I don't know, check it out and decide for yourself.
7/10 This easily could've been a 9.5, but that one issue brought it down for me. Wiping that from my mind... this is a killer Western with great actors doing what they do best. It's hard to make a horrible looking film with the American Southwest as your backdrop... it's a gorgeous film to behold. And the score harkens back to the Western films of old without delving into the cliche. Well worth a viewing.
DS333, blind-sided.
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