3:10 To Yuma

This is a remake of the 1957 classic. Watch both. Either way you can't go wrong.

Gripping, suspenseful western from 2007 directed by James Mangold and starring Christian Bale and Russell Crowe.

Poor, disbled farmer takes on the task of taking a muderer to a far off town to put him on a train to prison while the bad guy's gang tries to intercept them.

Both stars turn in great performances...Crowe is a bad guy you can't help but like. That is the probelm Bale faces as Crowe tries to psych him out along the way.

I had a couple problems with the ease in which Crowe gets the upper hand, but all in all a taut thriller with spurts of well shot action.

Both films, this one and the original from 1957, are well done action adventures with a psychological overtones.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381849/

Buffalo Bill and the Indians

1976 Robert Altman film stars Paul Newman, Joel Grey, Burt Lancaster.

Interesting, as all Altman films are. Revisionist western comedy takes the Buffalo Bill character and turns him into an eccentric showman who may or may not be the great Western legend he's made out to be.

Who cares? Paul Newman has a field day overplaying Buffalo Bill and the other characters are full of quirks.

Fun and irreverent.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074254/

Appaloosa

Another one from the heart from Ed Harris who co-wrote, directed, and stars along with Viggo Mortensen and Renee Zellweger.

Two friends in the Old West are hired on to police the town of Appaloosa. They are professionals but have a diificult time bringing a muderer to justice. Their lives are complicated by the arrival of a widow.

This one feels just right...the cold ruthlessness but fairness of the lawmen, the bad guys who feel they are above the law, and a love story that's quirky and integral to the plot.

Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen strike just the right chord together as friends and coworkers who are good at what they do...they just don't verbalize that much about the ethics or morality of their profession.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800308/

Little Big Man

1970 Arthur Penn film stars Dustin Hoffman as Jack Crabb, who claims he is a survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. We never know if his recollections are tall tales or truthful, but we are treated to adventures that include being raised by Native Americans, becoming civilized thanks to preacher's wife Faye Dunaway, becoming a gunslinger, a drunk, a muleskinner for Custer, and more.

Fascinating look at the Old West through revisionary eyes.

Chief Dan George is great as Hoffman's adopted grandfather.

Altogether a great cast and imaginative story masterfully told.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065988/