I watched the original 3:10 to Yuma.

Naturally, I had to see this one because I effing adored the remake. A true rarity for me - I don't usually care for Westerns (too setting-oriented and setting has always escaped me as both a writer and an observer). Because of the newer edition, I have developed a Crowe-crush. I also got obsessed with anything to do with it. Including the 1957 go-round.

Back to that - because of the original, I have a new thing for Glenn Ford.

Yes, I'm aware he's dead. I don't care. I have a crush on Cary Grant too. I'm okay with myself.

The thing about Ford (in this movie anyway, I was previously a Glenn-virgin) is all the stuff he didn't say. He lets silence do the work. So when he does speak, it has resonance. And the love scene with the young lady in the bar is so sexy it's simply unbearable to watch in my particular condition.

I also worked really hard to pay attention to setting to see how they used it and how it affected the story. (Mainly because Joss Whedon, my TV-on-DVD hero, once stated that Westerns are all about vast, open space). In 1957, instead of spending most of the story in travel, they spent a good amount of time in the hotel room waiting for the clock to strike 3. The restrictions of the setting made an act as simple as opening a window rife with tension.

It was neat too, how the farmer used everything around him, even his prisoner, to maneuver through the town to get to the train. (In 2007 they work as a team to get through the town - Crowe makes it very clear that he's helping farmer Bale out.)

Shadows were an interesting focus in this film as well. A great contrast against the bright desert landscape. They also used shadows to get around censorship issues. (One of my fave pasttimes is watching Frank Capra movies to see how he keeps his stories all sexed up even with the censors breathing down his neck: he was a master at visual metaphor and creative problem solving.)

The conclusions are vastly different, even though both films make the relationship the focus. I'm trying to decide which version I liked better, though the scales are weighing heavily for 2007. It all makes me want to study the conventions of Westerns (both in film and literature) because I'm interested to find out if the storytelling methods have changed because of the differences in the decades.