Who needs realism anyway?

[baleanoptera]

3:10 to Yuma

At one point in 3:10 to Yuma Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) is beaten repeatedly in the face with a shotgun. The guy hitting him is enraged to the point that the others almost have to drag him away, and when they do we see dark blood trickle out of Wade’s mouth and down his chin.

Comments

[dianora77]

Ustinov's Nero is a favourite of mine and my brother's. We just love him in that role. Between us, every now and then when opportunity calls, my bro's been known to say: "Let it be wonderful!" Hahahahaha! What. a. dork.

[baleanoptera]

Nero is hands down the best part of the film. I kept thinking I'd like a film just about him and his crazy singing. Everybody else is so serious and Nero just romps through the thing like, well, a mad, decadent Roman emperor.

[nutmeg3]

You've fixed on one of the things that irritates me most in films/on TV (and in books, too, for that matter): The Incredible Healing Powers Of The Star/Hero. Feh.

[baleanoptera]

In 3:10 to Yuma it was just ridiculous. He was beaten repeatedly in the face with a shotgun. How is he even speaking properly afterwards? And I wouldn't have minded so much if other parts of the film had not been so preoccupied with being realistic.

[applegnat]

Historical research has proved you correct

Hahahaha! I wonder what they would say now? Please wait while we confirm that your IP address does not correspond with the edit logs on the Wikipedia entry?

[baleanoptera]

Hee! It wouldn't surprise me in the least.

I'm considering embroidering "Historical research has proved you correct" and tacking it to my office door.

[baleanoptera]

At times I felt like 3:10 to Yuma bordered on the schizophrenic. It was as if the film couldn't decide if it wanted to critique the Frontier Myth of wholly embrace it. Instead of going "wow" I just went "huh?" a lot. That is never a good thing.

[sunnyskywalker]

The lack of follow-through bothered me so much in 3:10 to Yuma. And I didn't even notice the face problem

[baleanoptera]

Excellent points.

Wade and his guys talk about the big heist they just pulled right in front of the saloon girl

That whole plot point was so bizarre. I kept expecting it to make sense, or for her to be an accomplish or something. Granted there were hints that Wade had heard her sing before and as such they had met, but there is a far leap from that to trusting her with their dirty secrets. But for me what tipped the scale was the fact that Wade asked her to elope with him. I mean - why did he do that? Was it illustrative of his character? Probably, but since we didn't really know him or her it was hard to say.

They even had a random Apache attack... which didn't lead to much, did it?

Oh man, the Apaches in this film just felt pasted on. Not only did we barely see them, but based on the geographical feel the film gave it appeared that there were about six Apaches living in a small valley about ten minutes from the city, brandishing their guns and being ominous. I suspect they were just there so that the director could tick of

[sunnyskywalker]

If the WTF moments are due to it being a remake, then I'd say the people responsible for this movie shouldn't do remakes anymore.

If they wanted me to care about fathers and sons, maybe they shouldn't have pointed out how even the "good guy" father is teaching his son to turn a blind eye to forced labor and genocide in favor of focusing on some random white star. What do one teenage boy's minor problems matter in the face of all that? Really, they just not brought in all those moments that reminded me of the interesting movie I wasn't watching.