Is the Western past its sell-by date? Sure, they still pop up on our screens every now and then, but when a new Western starring both Christian Bale and Russell Crowe barely limps into limited release in Japan some two years (!) after its U.S. release, well then it's clear the genre is in trouble. Just ask Ed Harris, whose pet project "Appaloosa" remains unreleased here one year after opening in most other markets.
The problem isn't necessarily quality. "3:10 to Yuma," director James Mangold's remake of the hard-boiled 1957 cowboy flick of the same name, is a slam-bang, action-packed ride into destiny, with both Bale and Crowe in top form, and a colorful supporting cast. It's just that at this point a Western needs to have some kind of hook to gain attention, whether it's painfully arty revisionism ("The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford"), a queering of the genre ("Brokeback Mountain"), or total ironic pastiche ("The Quick And The Dead.")
Like Kevin Costner's underrated "Open Range" (2003), "3:10 to Yuma" is just plain old classical Western storytelling wed to modern high-impact filmmaking. These movies aren't a far cry from "High Noon" (1952) story-wise, but when a shotgun gets fired with a cannon-like impact, you'll realize this is post-"Terminator" cinema.