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THE FLICK: The death of the Western has been greatly exaggerated. For proof, one need look no further than 3:10 To Yuma, a simple (but never simplistic) shoot ‘em up that takes the classic “outlaw” story and adds two of the top actors working today. Like the much ballyhooed pairing of Pacino and DeNiro in Heat, the casting of Russell Crowe and Christian Bale is a dream-team combination; but unlike the unsatisfying 5-minute face-off in Michael Mann’s crime drama, director James Mangold (Walk The Line) orchestrates a slow-burn rivalry between his two leading men in this remake of the 1957 Glenn Ford oater. Based on an early Elmore Leonard short story, there’s plenty of clichéd machismo on display from the get-go. Crowe plays smooth-talking, sharp-shooting criminal Ben Wade, whose gang has just knocked off their 20th Pinkerton stagecoach and all the monies therein. After a domestic entanglement slows down his getaway, Wade finds himself in the hands of the law and en route to Yuma prison. However, volunteers to escort the notorious bad guy are few and far between, which means one-legged rancher Dan Evans (Bale) agrees to the job for a considerable reward that will help save his land. With Wade’s gang in hot pursuit, Evans and his band of amateur lawmen face poor odds and almost certain death. The beauty of Mangold’s update is that it doesn’t make apologies for all the inherent clichés; instead letting them play out with a deliberate earnestness, confident that a story well told doesn’t need to be “contemporized.” And, damn, if 3:10 To Yuma doesn’t pull it off brilliantly, forgoing the post-modern eulogies of Unforgiven and the sappy self-indulgence of Open Range to deliver a tense, action-packed entertaining Western better than anything made since the days when Hollywood still believed playing cowboys and Indians made financial sense. THE FEATURES: So you bought yourself a new Blu-ray player for Christmas and you’re looking to put it through its paces? Well, saddle up, my friends, because Lionsgate has done you proud with this title, featuring the exclusive interactive experience which allows you to listen to Mangold’s commentary while accompanying storyboards or script pages elucidate certain points. That commentary can also be accessed separately along with a number of well-produced featurettes. Destination Yuma is a rather predictable “Making Of” that hits all the necessary beats in a scant 20-minutes, including the construction of not one, but two Western towns from scratch. Outlaws, Gangs and Posses explores the post-Civil War conditions that created characters like Ben Wade in the first place, mostly ex-Confederates with a big chip on their shoulders. The Guns of Yuma looks at the weaponry used in the film for historical accuracy. 3:10 To Score touches on Marco Beltrami’s soundtrack which gets a fair share of inspiration from good ‘ol Ennio Morricone. Sea to Shining Sea tackles the history of the transcontinental railroad while the Historical Timeline of the West puts everything in a point-and-click perspective. And A Conversation with Elmore Leonard is just that, a sit-down with the author who describes his early working process and the genesis of the original story. As for the picture quality and sound presentation; it’s absolutely top-notch with all clarity that full 1080p video and 7.1 PCM audio can allow.