3:10 to Yuma

I strongly recommend the film 3:10 to Yuma(2007.) It's one of those films that I'd meant to see in the theaters but never got around to. The thumbnail of the premise is that it's a Western in which the protagonist is a down-on-his-luck rancher who agrees to help transport a ridiculously dangerous criminal to the prison train in Yuma for $200 knowing full well that others from the gang will be trying to kill him (the rancher) all the way there. It is really interesting because the characters don't always act logically, but this is due to emotional undertones rather than to poor scripting. I kept going, "But why did he..." only to answer myself with, "Oh yeah. Complex, contradictory emotions. I forgot people had those."

The course language that's part of the films "R" rating is sparse, but the violence is not. This is definitely a character-driven piece, but the violence that is shown is fairly brutal, in part due to the effective way in which it is shot rather than to gratuity. If you just want a strait-up action film, though, you may be disappointed. I think that this is a case where the violence really is necessary to show what type of men these are, but I can also understand that some people have had enough disturbing imagery in their own lives that watching fictional men perforate each other isn't on the top of their "to do" lists.

Posted by Graven on Sat Jun 14, 2008 @ 7:38 am EDT | 0 Comments