By rough estimate, I own 339 movies on DVD or Blu-ray, and it’s been a long time since I’ve watched a lot of them. Since I have a bit of time on my hands these days, I decided to take a few weeks to work my way through them all. Then my husband pointed out one movie a day would be nearly a year, so I revised my project. Between now and June 10, 2015, I will be watching and writing about each and every one of the movies I own, in the order they are arranged on my shelf (i.e., alphabetically, with certain exceptions). There will be no exceptions to this rule (even the most embarrassing, ridiculous titles are subject to scrutiny), except that I will not be discussing any other discs I might own, such as TV series, sporting events, or live concerts as part of this endeavor. I welcome your comments, your words of encouragement and your declarations of my insanity.
Without further adieu, let us begin.
MOVIE #1: 3:10 to Yuma
My project commences on a bit of an inauspicious note with the all-but-forgotten 3:10 to Yuma, a 2007 Western starring Christian Bale and Russell Crowe that I’m dead certain I haven’t watched once since I bought the disc. I guess I was buying movies in 2007; I don’t remember.
It’s a bit of a morality play, as I suppose most Westerns are, dealing quite openly with the question of doing what’s right in the face of adversity. Bale is the honest man struggling against numerous obstacles, while Crowe plays the calculating scoundrel confronted by his own code of ethics. In case you’ve never encountered either of them before and couldn’t guess that for yourselves. But of course, their characters also contain shadows of one another, and it’s within this conflict that the tension really lies. And even though the titular train at the end of their journey is simply the McGuffin, many opportunities for suspense and prototypical Western gunfights arise along the way. The climactic shootout tends to stretch the limits of one’s suspension of disbelief, but the movie ends on a fairly satisfying note, despite never really achieving a greater status than that of a decent, but unremarkable film.
Having come out in November of 2007, I suspect some overly optimistic production company somewhere was pinning a few Oscar hopes on this one, but there’s nothing really in it to warrant that kind of attention. I remember liking the film when I saw it in the theater (back when I went to LOTS of movies in theaters), but when I started it up I honestly couldn’t place a single moment of it and only vaguely recall enjoying the denouement, which I kind of had wrong anyway. Memory is a funny thing. I look forward to exploring more memories on the movies to come.
Viable Option 