I am someone that really enjoys westerns, but the problem is that recently just finding a western isn’t easy, and on top of that finding a western that is any good is even tougher. In the past ten years the only western that I can even recall capturing my interest was The Proposition released just last year. Seeing how that film made only $1.9 million at the box-office I am guessing not a lot of you saw it.
Looking back at the past 15 years we can include Tombstone, Unforgiven and I even liked Mel Gibson in Maverick, but that is really about it. Go back 20 years and you can add Young Guns and Dances with Wolves to the mix (even though I didn’t really like Dances with Wolves). I thought Wyatt Earp was no good and the other recent Kevin Costner western Open Range was okay, but really not worth more than one viewing. I think we all know films like The Quick and the Dead and American Outlaws are pretty bad and since I didn’t see Seraphim Falls or The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada I can’t comment on those two.
For the most part, it seems like the western has died, which is truly unfortunate. My question is whether or not the upcoming Lionsgate release of 3:10 to Yuma can spur on studios to once again back the Wild West.
Yuma has a lot going for it including Russell Crowe, Christian Bale and Walk the Line director James Mangold behind it, but is star power enough to get audiences used to watching the boys rustle around in the dust once again?
I recently had a chance to watch a couple of John Wayne titles on HD DVD and one of them was The Cowboys, which is a truly fantastic film, but I also think it is a movie that would make close to zero dollars now days and this is where Yuma is really going to be looked at. Cool trailers, cool actors and a snazzy and quite broad marketing campaign are doing everything they can to get audiences in to see this film. Early reviews have been positive, but nothing really matters if the movie doesn’t perform on a monetary level.
Money, that is where 3:10 to Yuma will be judged in the eyes of producers. While Lionsgate isn’t exactly one of the “major” studios it is on the doorstep and Yuma is certainly a bid for it to break out of that horror genre mold it painted for itself with such hits as Saw and Hostel. I will say it would be nice if Lionsgate could break out of that mold because they tend to be a studio with balls that are willing to put out a grittier film than say Fox or Sony, letting their directors make the films they intend to make rather than messing them up just to get a rating and dollars.
I would love it if Yuma could bust the doors down and make way for more westerns, but one thing that certainly would help the cause would be an actor determined to make them. John Wayne made who knows how many westerns and Clint Eastwood had his fair share, but since those two we haven’t had an actor that carried the torch, and I don’t see Crowe or Bale making a home on the range anytime soon.
New Line is giving the West a chance next year with Appaloosa starring Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen and Renée Zellweger which was adapted from Robert B. Parker’s novel of the same name, and centers on a pair of friends hired to protect a lawless town suffering at the hands of a renegade rancher. The arrival of an attractive widow disrupts their plans. Sounds pretty good if you ask me, and the cast seems perfect. However, outside of Appaloosa the western barrel is dry.
3:10 to Yuma hits theaters this Friday, September 7 and I will be weighing in with my opinion on the film Thursday night. At time of publication it sat at 93% on RottenTomatoes with 15 reviews counted, who knows, this may be a critical and audience favorite and more dust ups will be on the way. One can only hope that is the case.
For more Yuma you can check out the trailer as well as 10 clips from the flick right here.
