Maggi Noodle Review: 3:10 to Yuma

Riding high

After the disappointment that I had last week, I stumbled onto a gem of a movie this week.

I walked into the theatre to watch "3:10 to Yuma" because of the two stars in the movie - Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. And boy, did they deliver?! Ram Gopal Varma should be hogtied and made to watch this movie to learn how to take a very simple story, let the actors talk (yes, the characters talk a lot more than they shoot), and build the tension and excitement.

Crowe plays a wanted bandit, who is captured and has to be transported to a town where he can be put on the train to Yuma, to be tried, and subsequently hung, for his offences. Bale plays a down-on-his-luck rancher, who desperately needs the money he will get for accompanying the men who will help transport Crowe. Lying in wait are Crowe's henchmen, hell-bent on retrieving their boss, regardless of personal loss or consequences.

Along the way Crowe and Bale elevate the movie from a simple shoot-em-up to something more engrossing. In a time where explosions and 3 second shots are supposed to reflect the attention span and intellect of the audience, it is great to see a director pan his camera slowly to catch the action and let the dialogues substitute for thrills.

Don't get me wrong - there is a lot of shooting, features one or two seemingly improbable gun battles, lots of folks die, and in many different ways. But through it all it somehow does not seem contrived. There are genuine moments of tension, anxiety, tenderness, and a whole lot of other emotions that you would not expect.

I'd write a lot more but I shall let the movie do its own talking. I hope this movie manages to do well at the box office. But I fear for its fate in this day and age when teeny-bopper slasher movies are the rage.

It is one of the best Westerns I have ever seen. Watch it and tell me what you think.