Something to watch tonight: Tuesday 19 August

3:10 to Yuma (Mangold, 2008)

This week marks the 500^th edi­tion of this news­let­ter, so we are cel­eb­rat­ing by offer­ing a 50% dis­count on full-year sub­scrip­tions. That equates roughly to 15c for every edi­tion that lands in your inbox four days a week.

If you don’t feel up to a paid sub at this point in time, in this eco­nomy, you could use the but­ton below to recom­mend us to your friends and rela­tions. The top recom­mend­er will get a prize!

I’ve been want­ing to recom­mend this since we star­ted here and now — thanks to TVNZ+ — I can.

If you get the chance, you really should see the Delmer Davies 1957 ori­gin­al which stars Glenn Ford and Van Heflin. You can rent it from Apple.

The for­tunes of the Western rise with the tide of American cinema. During the 70’s indie renais­sance we got rugged clas­sics like The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid and The Long Riders, then in the 80’s and 90’s Clint Eastwood re-examined his own myth­ic West in Pale Rider and Unforgiven . (The less said about Young Guns 1 and 2 the better.)

The past 12 months have offered us two Westerns that are as good as any of the last 30 years: The Assassination of Jesse James and James Mangold’s homage to the clas­sic 3:10 to Yuma which opened in Wellington last week.

Yuma is a story (by Elmore Leonard) with great bones: poor, hon­est, ranch­er Christian Bale is suf­fer­ing because of the drought and for $200 takes on the des­per­ate task of escort­ing cap­tured out­law Russell Crowe to Contention City, where he will catch the eponym­ous train to the gallows.

But Crowe’s gang are on the way to lib­er­ate him and Bale’s sup­port is dwind­ling to noth­ing. The ten­sion rises as the clock ticks towards three o’clock.

Slightly marred by muddy motiv­a­tion for Crowe’s char­ac­ter at the end (and by Bale being Bale), 3:10 to Yuma is still fine enter­tain­ment with many of the best lines lif­ted straight from the 1957 ori­gin­al.

Also reviewed in that Capital Times column: Julie Delpy’s 2 Days in Paris, “glossy, mul­tina­tion­al” adapt­a­tion of Love in the Time of Cholera and excel­lent Czech com­edy I Served the King of England.

Where to watch 3:10 to Yuma

Aotearoa: Streaming on TVNZ+ (free with ads) or Lionsgate+ (An Amazon add-on)

Australia: Streaming on FoxtelNow

Canada: Streaming on Paramount+

Ireland: Digital rental

India: Digital rental

USA: Streaming on Fubo or Paramount+

UK: Digital rental