High Expectations

I love Westerns. I love, love them and I have since I was a young 'un and used to watch them with my father and brother. High Noon, Shane, Unforgiven, The Magnificent Seven... I ate and continue to eat up all this stuff up with a spoon.

There's something about the genre that appeals to me, and it's not just the pretty horsies. I don't particularly love violence, so I doubt that's it, and I don't really go in for men with faces like a piece of old leather so I don't think that's it either. Sad as it is to admit I think it's just the often scholcky 'one man against the world' crap that I like. A lot of genres gives this stuff a crack but westerns do it best, never better exemplified than in the true classic High Noon where Gary Cooper spends half the movie unsuccessfully trying to gather up a posse to meet some bad dudes coming to town and as you watch it the realisation he could be on his lonesome sort of slowly descends on you on a way that beats lamearse plot twists (looking at you M. Night S-----) for suspense value. That's good moviemaking right there.

Anyway, this is just a long-winded way of saying I am squeeing myself with excitement about 3.10 To Yuma - based on a story by the brilliant Elmore Leonard and already (apparently) drawing comparisons with High Noon. Now, I've been hurt before by inflated expectations (yeah I actually thought Troy would be, um, you know, good) and this movie does feature Russell Crowe - not a favourite of mine - but I'm throwing caution to ye olde winds and saying this is going to be the Best Western Eva. And if worst comes to worst at least it's got Christian Bale somewhere in the cast. Old leather he is not.