is 3:10 to Yuma a short story Elmore Leonard wrote or an idea?

Anybody want to tackle this question?

It’s a short story.  Elmore did a number of western stories honing his craft as a younger man, and because it paid.  3:10 to Yuma is quite old now.  There was a movie made of it starring Glenn Ford as the bad guy.  That movie is now quite old too, which I’m guessing is why Hollywood is doing a remake of it now.  Christian Bale and Russell Crowe star.

You can find actual, vetted information about it on the weblog page.  I’m just spewing off the top of my head.

Hey, I tried.  ;-D

The library had The Complete Western Stories so I checked it out.  Haven’t dug into it yet, but there’s ‘3:10 to Yuma,’ big as life near the top of the table of contents.

The “old” movie 3:10 to Yuma is one of the great western films so a remake will have a tough time topping it.

Wonder if Netflix has the ‘old’ movie in their archives?  Will have to check. 

Die hard Elmore fans will flock to the new movie, but that probably won’t be enough to ensure its success.  If they market it aggressively as the next great Russell Crowe flick it may see decent numbers in the opening weekend.  But if you don’t see it in the first couple of weeks, you’ll probably have to wait for the DVD.

Scrum - 17 November 2006 12:13 AM

The library had The Complete Western Stories so I checked it out.  Haven’t dug into it yet, but there’s ‘3:10 to Yuma,’ big as life near the top of the table of contents.

There’s a pretty good ‘Coversation with Elmore Leonard’ in that book too, written by someone we may know around here. 

You can get the DVD of the original 3:10 to Yuma from the Turner Classic Movies website.

The first half hour of Yuma was tacked on, but overall it was good.  The idea was not very original, but still had “legs.”
Walter Winchell described the movie as “exactly three hours and ten minutes after High Noon.”

I suspect that Mangold’s Yuma will deviate even further, with Gladiator and Batman going at it.  It might be good in its own right and make money, but the association with Elmore’s story may be in name only.  We shall see.

I read the story 3:10 to Yuma last night for the first time. I didn’t used to think I liked westerns (what did I know). I haven’t seen the first version. Anyway, the story is very short, maybe 3000 words, so a lot more will have to be added. And, like a lot of Elmore Leonard’s writing it’s almost “anti-Hollywood” in that the main character, the hero, wrestles with his own fear. We’ll see if there’s even a moment of fear in the Gladiator. And, as usual, the Elmore Leonard character isn’t “heroic” in the Hollywood sense.

If you’re interested in a cool performance of of ‘3:10 to Yuma’, check out Henry Rollins’ (yes, ex-punk rocker Henry Rollins) reading of it on the audiobook version. Like all the readers on that audio, he’s got it down.

Rollins was a pioneer in the ‘spoken word’ genre of performance art back in the day.  Had to be a few years ago now.  Maybe 20?  I recall seeing him on Johnny Carson doing one of his poems or something.

Russell Crowe plays a menacing character well.  I think his take on Ben Wade will be entertaining.

And Christian Bale was great in American Psycho.  Made a decent Batman too.  Good to see him getting more roles.

To me, it’s all about Mangold and what he can do to “improve” a near-classic and avoid the plague of the modern western..

Of course, the proof is in the pudding, but Mangold’s got two things going for him, Elmore Leonard wise. He gets good results from actors. That’s important in EL movies where the characters carry the weight. And Mangold respects genres. Cop Land, Identity, I Walk the Line, even that Meg Ryan time travel movie. Each original and respectful of the genre.