3:10 To Yuma: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
In Arizona in the late 1800s, infamous outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) and his vicious gang of thieves and murderers have plagued the Southern Railroad. When Wade is captured, Civil War veteran Dan Evans (Christian Bale), struggling to survive on his drought-plagued ranch, volunteers to deliver him alive to the “3:10 to Yuma,” a train that will take the killer to prison. During the grueling expedition, Evans and Wade, each from very different worlds, begin to earn each other’s respect. However, with Wade’s posse on their trail, the mission soon becomes a violent, impossible journey toward each man’s destiny.
I’m not usually particularly fond of remakes or reboots but this one really did it for me. The other thing is that I’m a big fan of westerns as well. This film along with Wyatt Earp and Unforgiven are my favorites and were on repeat in my house for a good while. The film has such phenomenal performances from Crowe and Bale. It’s easy to see how they’ve had such longevity in the business. The other thing that I do need to applaud is the fantastic direction of the film. James Mangold does a great job at making the film feel so fast paced and momentous even in the scenes where not much is happening. He also made me become engrossed in the characters and their story the entire way through. Like I stated before, this is a remake of a 1957 film but after watching both versions I think that this will be the one that everybody remembers and considers a “classic”. So if you haven’t seen this film then do yourself a favor and watch it ASAP. 8/10
4K Presentation:
This release shows a pretty good amount of improvement from it’s standard 1080p version. Facial textures are a lot more noticeable as well as various scenes where shadows have improved detail. One of the bigger things that I noticed was the limited film grain. It’s still there in some cases but they seemed to have cleaned it up to the point that it’s barely even present.
Special Features:
3:10 To Score – An interesting look at the musical composition of the film.
Sea To Shining Sea Documentary – History buffs will dig this feature a lot. It focuses on the railroad that was featured in the film.
A Conversation With Elmore Leonard – A nice feature that involves a chat with the author of the original story.
The Guns Of Yuma – A look at the guns in the film that were used by each character.
Historical Timeline Of The West – This is VERY interesting. It’s a look at various decades from the 1860’s to the 1890’s and look at certain moments that shaped that era.
Inside Yuma – A great interactive feature that allows you to read script pages along with certain scenes in the film.
Destination Yuma – A look at the making of the film that goes in depth about the settings, props, characters and story elements.
An Epic Explored – Cast and crew talk a bit about western films and their place in cinema.
Outlaws, Gangs And Posses – This feature looks at the history of outlaws in the U.S.
Deleted Scenes – A good handful of scenes here that are actually pretty interesting to check out.
Audio Commentary With Director James Mangold
