When I heard they were shooting a remake of the 1957 Western 3:10 to Yuma, I had to wonder why. As the Wikipedia entry said of the original movie, “The film was well received on release and is still highly regarded today.”
On the other hand, Westerns don’t seem to be all that popular among the 16-20 and 30-39-year-olds, which are the two largest groups that go to the movies today—each group accounting for 19% (or 38% total) of the movie-going public. Attendees under 30 years of age are the dominant force in the movie-going public. And traditional Westerns just don’t lend themselves to the computerized special effects, superheroes, and car chases that age group seems to prefer.
My expectations of the remake dropped when I heard that a horse and rider were injured on the first day of filming. The rider was hospitalized and the horse euthanized. Now one thing that the original movie had was some good riders—real cowboys and rodeo riders. Go look at the video or DVD and you’ll see them making flying mounts and dismounts from galloping horses. What you won’t see is a lot of Young Guns shots of riders’ elbows flapping up and down and their butts bouncing off the saddles. Glenn Ford owned horses and rode regularly.
I’m sure Crowe and Bale will do their best in the two lead roles; by starring two New Zealanders in an American Western, perhaps the producer is going for a reverse play on Quigley Down Under which featured an American actor as a cowboy in the Outback. But I’m sure going to miss the great character actor Richard Jaeckel in the role of Charlie Prince, which Ben Foster will play. Sure gonna miss ol’ Frankie Laine belting out that theme song, too. “Taaaaaake that traaaaaaaain!”
On the other hand, Westerns don’t seem to be all that popular among the 16-20 and 30-39-year-olds, which are the two largest groups that go to the movies today—each group accounting for 19% (or 38% total) of the movie-going public. Attendees under 30 years of age are the dominant force in the movie-going public. And traditional Westerns just don’t lend themselves to the computerized special effects, superheroes, and car chases that age group seems to prefer.
My expectations of the remake dropped when I heard that a horse and rider were injured on the first day of filming. The rider was hospitalized and the horse euthanized. Now one thing that the original movie had was some good riders—real cowboys and rodeo riders. Go look at the video or DVD and you’ll see them making flying mounts and dismounts from galloping horses. What you won’t see is a lot of Young Guns shots of riders’ elbows flapping up and down and their butts bouncing off the saddles. Glenn Ford owned horses and rode regularly.
I’m sure Crowe and Bale will do their best in the two lead roles; by starring two New Zealanders in an American Western, perhaps the producer is going for a reverse play on Quigley Down Under which featured an American actor as a cowboy in the Outback. But I’m sure going to miss the great character actor Richard Jaeckel in the role of Charlie Prince, which Ben Foster will play. Sure gonna miss ol’ Frankie Laine belting out that theme song, too. “Taaaaaake that traaaaaaaain!”