Welcome to the first This Weekend's Film Festival of 2008. With the remake of 3:10 TO YUMA hitting DVD today, I felt it was a great time to look at the best Westerns of the last few years. Now I can't say that I've seen every Western made since 2001 (for instance, I still need to see THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD), but these five films are all great Westerns that I feel more people need to see. The genre is often called dead, but with the solid performance of 3:10 TO YUMA, there is hope for more to be made. There is no other genre that is more archetypically American, so it needs to survive, and as fans of cinema in general, I feel we need to help promote underrated Westerns, so they can reach a wider audience.
The #5 film on the list is Kevin Costner's OPEN RANGE. Revisiting the Western for first time since DANCES WITH WOLVES, Costner stars in a more traditional representation of the genre. I said of Costner in my original review, "It seems that he is trying to borrow pieces from the full history of the genre from the epic scope of the classic Western to the more honest depiction of violence that was signature to Westerns of the 1970s." Costner's Charley Waite rides the range with three other men, including the philosophical, veteran cowboy Boss Spearman. When their young hand Mose is attacked in a town run by crocked Irish landowner Denton Baxter (played by Michael Gambon), Charley and the others must face off against the corrupt wealthy men that control the town, whose average citizen has been beaten into submission by the powers that be. In traditional archetypical Western fashion, OPEN RANGE deals with the effects of violence on the mind to great affect.
Coming in at #4, THE PROPOSITION is one of the most brutal Westerns ever made — and it's not even set in the American West, but the Australian Outback. "The film has many of the conventions of the genre, but takes them further in a more brutally honest way than any other Western," to quote my original review. In the film, outlaw Charlie Burns, played laconically by Guy Pearce, is given a proposition from Ray Winstone's lawman — if Charlie kills his older brother Arthur, his younger brother Mikey will not be hanged. Arthur is a savage killer with a poetic streak, who has more than one person gunning for him. Written by musician Nick Cave and directed by John Hillcoat, this Western rips open the underbelly of the conventions of the genre and makes us rethink them. We see the anti-hero outlaw in a new light, because these men are as brutal as the environment they love. Winstone and his wife, played by Emily Watson, try to make a civilized life in the outback, which seems as crazy as Arthur's actions in many ways.
At the midway #3 slot comes the film that inspired this week's lineup — 3:10 TO YUMA. As I started my original review, "WALK THE LINE director James Mangold does with 3:10 TO YUMA what all good remakes do — use the original’s strengths as a basis while fleshing out the weak moments." Dan Evans, played with great intensity by Christian Bale, is a down-on-his-luck farmer who wants to do something right that he can be proud of for once in his life. He enlists to help take captured outlaw Ben Wade, played with a sly grin by Russell Crowe, to the 3:10 train to prison. Like the 1957 original, Wade is inspired by the noble farmer to rethink his life. In expanding the trip to the train, the redux adds more action, but also more effective character moments. Fleshed out more, Dan Evans is a man who has been beaten down by life and has buried his resentment for way too long. Supporting the two stars are Alan Tudyk, Peter Fonda and Ben Foster, who gives an intense star-making performance. This film reminds us of all the good things about the Western and could be the right film to rekindle the classic genre.
At #2, Michael Winterbottom's stark, ponderous Western, THE CLAIM, is not only one of the most underrated of the recent Westerns, but also of recent films. Reminiscent of Robert Altman's classic Western MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER, the story is set in a snowbound mountain gold rush town, where all the townsfolk can do during the winter is visit the brothel and contemplate their lives. The town leader, Daniel Dillion, is tortured by his past evils, which come to the surface when a dying woman and her daughter arrive in town. Based on Thomas Hardy’s novel THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE, Winterbottom, along with screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce, transforms the British period story into a classic Western, where the striking cinematography and production design work important roles in setting the mood and motivating the characters. Peter Mullan is a perfect course as the sad, and often savage, Dillion. He is supported well by Nastassja Kinski (the dying woman), Sarah Polley (the daughter) and Wes Bentley, who plays a young, ambitious railroad surveyor who has a great deal of power over the survival of the town. As I closed my original review, "This underrated Western is a captivating production if one lets it work on you. Audiences too accustomed to having stories spelled out for them may get frustrated with this one, but those you give it time will find that they have struck gold."
In the top slot, I put a very unconventional choice — the modern set THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA. Though it is a contemporary tale, it has all the qualities of a classic Western from its setting to its story. Pete, played with determination by director Tommy Lee Jones, is best friends with illegal Mexican immigrant Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cedillo). When rookie border patrol officer Mike Norton (Barry Pepper) mistakenly kills Melquiades, Pete devised a poetic punishment for the cocky young man. As I said in my original review, "Pete is a classic Western character — a slightly crazed man who doggedly follows his own sense of honor. It reminded me of John Ford’s THE SEARCHERS and Sam Peckinpah’s BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GRACIA." This parable traverses deeply themes of loyalty, family and loneliness. Along the journey, there will be beauty, sadness, dark humor and surprises found.
So now it's time to tell me what you think, or if you haven't seen the films, then it's time to update the rental queue, head to the video store or check out Zap2It.com for TV listings. If you like my picks, post a comment. If you think I don't know a good Western from a cowpie then also post a comment telling me why.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
