3 10 to Yuma - 3 10 to Yuma PDF

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3 10 to Yuma...

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1 Alessia Crucitelli Film 1 Assignment -Clip 24 March 2020

3:10 to Yuma and Revisionist Western The genre conventions are based on popular culture, common sense and universal beliefs. Those conventions originated from historical context and other media - such as books, stories, and fictions. Within a given genre, the characters are defined and the storyline is familiar to the audience. When all the varieties of a genre have been explored, the genre is revised by pushing its own boundaries. An example of a revised genre movie is 3:10 to Yuma. C  onventionally, Western genre movies are set in the historical “Wild West”; with predefined characters represented like the sheriff, outlaw, barmaid, and a few more; the theme is frequently around the cowboy vs the indian, or the law vs the lawlessness, and so on; the outcome usually are the impossible love, the hero riding off into the sunset, and the sheriff defeating the outlaw. In 3:10 to Yuma, however, those conventions have been challenged. Even though the setting is still the “wild west,” with its cowboy riding majesty horses, the hot atmosphere of the desert, and the dust of a dry land touched by men and bullets, the characters assume a different tone than the classic western genre characters' representation. O  ur protagonist, Dan Evans, is doing his best to save his ranch in Arizona, where he lives with his wife and son William. He is not only failing to save his family from bankruptcy, but also in the eyes of his son - Will. The

2 outlaw in this picture is Ben Wade, which has a bounty on his head. Dan will eventually become our hero when he decides to find Ben and cash in the prize. In clip 4, Dan and Ben will protect each other against the villains, who want to set Ben free. Even though Ben is running with his hands into cuffs, he saves Dan from some bullets that otherwise would’ve injured him - or even worse, killed. Dan wanting to protect Ben is understandable - he needs the bounty’s money to save his family, and his marriage; however, Ben’s character development in protecting Dan is more unusual for a Western picture. From my point of view, the hero in this scene is Ben, who protects the main character making us - the audience - hope for a good ending. Even though Ben is surrounded by men who want to save him from justice, because of the relationship built during the movie with Dan, he decides to help our protagonist to conquer his son’s pride. However, the two characters debate the position during the movie, also from Will’s point of view. The one long take in the clip - where Will enters the room, looks out the window, notices the book with the drawing, then turns and walks away - is a great moment to show this debate also in Will’s head. At the beginning of the movie, he does not have respect for his father, Dan, whom he sees as a failure; thus Will admires Ben - the villain, who has courage to fight destiny. Will wants to be like Ben when he “grows up”, and Dan does not like it. In addition, Will’s feelings for Dan are one of the reasons why the father decides to take the risk and go on this mission. He wants to demonstrate to the son that he is worth something, he is worth being the son’s hero. He decides to demonstrate this by capturing Ben and sending him on the 3:10 train to Yuma.

3 For my point of view, the long shot in this clip represents the moment that the son realizes that his dad is not a complete failure, that he fights even though he is vulnerable due to his handicap. In that moment, when Will turns towards the camera giving us a nice close up on his emotions, we can perceive his fear of losing his dad. At the same time, Dan himself feels this change. In the last shot of this clip, when he asks for the time, his voice is deeper and more firm - fearless. And yet many may argue that he has that deep voice because of running all over the city and jumping rooftops escaping bullets, which I agree with, but at the same time, I can hear the difference of when a voice comes deep from the gut or from the throat. Thus, even though he is out of breath, his voice is deeper than it ever was, relating to the truth that he is about to make his son proud maybe for the first time ever....