Since early childhood, I have been a western movie fan. In adult life, the Western is still my favorite movie genre. Recently the movie, "3:10 To Yuma" was released and became an instant box office hit, surprisingly the western genre is not that popular in the modern box office. The last western that was awarded an Academy Award was Clint Eastwood's, "Unforgiven".
Being that it was doing so well at the box office, I was surprised to see "3:10 to Yuma" appear in the video stores as rentals and for sale in most outlets that market videos. A few days ago, my oldest daughter called me, she was raving about what a great movie that "3:10 to Yuma" was and that it was a must see movie. She had already watched it several times. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to purchase this movie on DVD to add to my collection of classic westerns. As I was leaving the store, I happened to stop by a "discount video" display just to see if there were any "old"movies that I may enjoy. Surprising to me, a copy of "3:10 To Yuma" was on display, however they only had one copy. The new "3:10 to Yuma" is a remake of the original movie which was released in 1957, fifty one years ago. The first version of the movie starred Glenn Ford and Van Heflin. The story of "3:10 to Yuma" was based on a short story written by Elmore Leonard. For those that were not around during the 1950 and 1960 era, Glenn Ford was
one of the more popular male actors, especially in the western genre.
I spent Tuesday evening, watching both of the movies. First watching the "new" version starring Russell Crowe followed by the black and white version of "3:10 To Yuma" that was made a half century ago. If you get the opportunity, you will want to watch both of these movies. I will not reveal which one I thought was the best, however, watching both movies was a very good. Watching both of these movies, gave me a new prospective of the difference in our "social" and "cultural" values of this era in comparison to the 1950's. It also gave me insight as to how far Hollywood can and will deviate the screen play from the original book. As well, it also demonstrated how Hollywood adapts to meet the current market trends in the industry to meet the public need for faster horses, bigger guns, and increase in violence. A great lesson to be had by watching both movies and making the comparisons.