Nothing like a western to throw in the mix of girly movies. That is the nice part of having the movies in alphabetical order, never know what's next. I wasn't sure how to file this because of the colon, so it is three hundred ten. Whatever.

This film rocks my world. I actually watched it twice and all of the special features prior to writing this entry. To make a good western is not easy. It has to be believable bad guys, good guys, an old fashioned shoot out at the coral and a good woman or two. The plot line in the movie is always simple but the characters, well that's what determines the western's worthiness... at least to me. This movie has all of that and more.

The characters relationships are developed from the first scene of a child coughing due to tuberculousis and his big brother who reads dime novels about outlaws. There are relationships of fathers and their sons, honor, decency, poverty, marriage, loyalty, down right rotteness that makes todays thugs look like chumps and through out it all, a strange twisted friendship between a murderer and a rancher.

The costumes are specific and elaborate. The bad guys wear what they can find and have a mixture of business men's vests and hats to civil war coats of leather. The guns are six shooters and double barrel shot guns, even a gatlin machine gun is used. The scenery is real to is point of abuse to the actors themselves. At one point we can see how the wait of the dress keeps Dan's wife, Alice, in a constant state of sweat due to the Arizona desert mixed with the layers in a woman's clothing. The music is always pensive and encourages the audience to stay with Dan on his quest to put Ben Wade on the train.

This movie is well acted, well directed, well produced. The characters change and grow with the interaction of each other allowing the audience to recognize that bad guys aren't all bad, good guys are all good and weaklings die in the old west.