The Western is back!!(Well,for now,anyway.)

Rating: 8/10 (19 September 2007)

Since the mid-1970s--I'd say,since about 1976,about the time "Gunsmoke" went off the air and John Wayne did his last movie--the Western as a genre(for movies AND TV)has been tapped less and less,with sort of a polar divide between edgy,darker,"anti-OAters"(i.e. Unforgiven,"Deadwood") and safe,pat,emotionally provocative("THe Young Riders",American Outlaws,Young Guns I & II)even Politically Correct(I'm thinking mostly of DAnces With Wolves) being the running link between the occasional horse opera fare that would hit popular culture. I suppose in a growing,more diverse culture of movie making,something a distinctly pre-civil rights and(if you make it right)unapologetically un-P.C. as a Western would find less of an audience now than it might've some,say,forty or fifty years ago.
So,I suppose it should come as no surprise that instead of making a new Western,the producers of this film decided to bring back this story,culled off an Elmore Leonard short and scripted by Halstead Welles,Michael Brandt and Derek Haas,directed by JAmes Mangold(the able director of Walk the Line). The story of how the paths of two men--the moral,gimped rancher DAn Evans(Christian BAle,another chameleon-like turn)and the calm,measured,cold-blooded and mostly amoral thief and killer Ben Wade(Russell Crowe,like Bale,just shape-shifting into another distinct and strong character)--cross is something as old as High Noon or Shane(particularly the slow build-up of the confrontation between Evans and the small band of locals who are attempting to take Crow to the eponymous train to prison,and Wade's brutal gang),but the saltier language and the drawn out character study make this as contemporary as any other movie genre in this era.
Some strong turns by Ben Foster(getting a little TOO good at playing creepy and scary,as a clearly sociopathic and clever second-in-command to Crowe's Wade),Logan Lerman(As the rancher's son),Gretchen Mol(as the rancher's wife),Peter Fonda(As a grizzled Pinkerton bounty hunter)and Alan Tudyk(as a timid Vet who goes along for the ride) give character to this movie. While I cannot call it5 a great movie or a favorite of mine,I found this movie impressive in its scope,feel and intensity,and can't help but feel like if future Westerns(whether original or remade)are put together like this one,I think the genre may see a new up-tick in viewer-ship. In the meantime,3:10 is mostly a rarity,but to me(and I suspect to many moviegoers),a rare film(or anything in general)is seen as a good thing,and that's how I feel for this film.