the mild/wild/gnarly West

Rating: 7/10 (20 January 2008)

So, there arrives another addition to a movie genre believed by some people to be practically extinct. I, for one, didn't even know that "3:10 to Yuma" is a remake until I read IMDb's description; westerns from the '40s and '50s are the types of movies that I usually avoid.
As for this movie. The most interesting aspect is that, as was the case with David Cronenberg's "A History of Violence", I ended up wondering whether or not the son is headed down the same direction as his father. But for the most part, I can't see much difference between this western and the average one. You see, "High Noon" was very likely an allusion to McCarthyism kowtowing; "Shane" was the original story of a total stranger defending a family from thugs; the spaghetti westerns gave the first accurate portrayal of life in the old west (gritty and dismal); and "Little Big Man" was the first movie to side with the Indians (and of course "Blazing Saddles" totally trashed the genre). But to this movie's credit, it does show the Chinese working on the railroad, which is what really happened.
Overall, it's worth seeing, but I wouldn't recommend it above most other movies. Starring Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Gretchen Mol and Peter Fonda. Imagine that: Peter Fonda went from "Easy Rider" to a remake of a western.