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Deep in the boundless desert, a burning stable lit up the night sky - this was a death threat from a creditor.

Stills from "Battle at Yuma"

Tonight is destined to be another sleepless night for Dan Evans and his family.

He lost a leg in the Civil War. As a war hero, he can only make a living with his wife and children on a small farm in the western desert.

Stills from "Battle at Yuma"

Faced with humiliation, the lame man chose to swallow his anger again and again. The once powerful sharpshooter had become a coward who was looked down upon even by his own relatives.

At the same time, the notorious legendary criminal Ben Wade was arrested.

This should have been a happy event, but the sheriffs would have to escort Wade, who had escaped from prison several times, to the town of Yuma, thousands of miles away, and disasters were bound to await them along the way.

Stills from "Battle at Yuma"

In order to regain everything he had lost, the late hero Dan Evans joined the escort team.

At the end of the journey, Wade's deputy has already set an ambush, and a bloody battle between good and evil is about to begin.

At this moment, Wade made a decision that no one expected...

"Battle of Yuma" Phoenix TV Movie Channel

To be broadcasted at 21:15 on August 25

3:00 to Yuma, directed by James Mangold

On the 50th anniversary of the release of the 1957 version of "3:00 to Yuma", the 2007 remake of the same name directed by James Mangold and starring two movie stars Russell Crowe and Christian Bale was released.

Yuma in the film's title is an unremarkable little city in Arizona, USA. It is small in area and has a small population. It is close to the US-Mexico border.

This western town, which can be regarded as a completely desolate place, has attracted the attention of many filmmakers.

Movies such as "Yuma", "Johnny Yuma", "Tom Yuma", the 1957 and 2007 versions of "Tom Yuma", and this year's dark horse crime film "The Last Stand in Yuma County" all have Yuma in their titles.

Without exception, all of them, as western films, were attracted by Yuma’s strong western style - vast wilderness, endless yellow sand, gun-toting cowboys, and galloping wild horses.

Speaking of westerns, it can be said to be the oldest genre in history.

As early as 1903, Edwin Porter filmed the western film "The Great Train Robbery".

The most classic scene in The Great Train Robbery

It can be said that westerns were almost born along with movies.

Even though it has experienced a trough, in the evolution of a century, Westerns have never disappeared and still attract top filmmakers to try and explore:

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

The Hateful Eight

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Django Unchained

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Killer Moon

Directed by Sergio Leone

Once Upon a Time in the West

Films directed by the Coen brothers

True Grit

Films directed by the Coen brothers

"Old Men"

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Western High Noon has been screened more than any other movie at the White House.

Bert Kern, executive producer of the documentary "The President's Favorite Movies," said:

"The protagonist of High Noon is a strong-willed leader who solves problems single-handedly when no help is available. All presidents dream of being such a person. Among the successive occupants of the White House, President Bush once screened this movie, Eisenhower also screened it three times in the White House, and Clinton watched it no less than 20 times."

Western films are loved by all walks of life in the United States because they must contain some classic American elements - the spirit of adventure and personal heroism.

Most American westerns are based on western literature and folklore. The plots are nothing more than hymns to personal heroism about heroes bringing civilization and law to the western desert, almost replicating the westward movement from the American perspective.

Stills from The Magnificent Seven

The protagonist is usually an image of a western cowboy, wearing a Mexican-style wide-brimmed high-top felt hat, a Colt revolver on his waist, and high leather boots decorated with horse spikes on his feet. He rides a fast horse in the dusty wilderness to fight against evil and uphold justice.

Cowboys refer to a group of enthusiastic and fearless pioneers in the vast western lands of the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. In American history, they are pioneers in the development of the West, full of adventurous and hardworking spirits, and are called "heroes on horseback."

But from today's perspective, early American westerns were limited by the times and could not be considered great or glorious, and even went against today's political correctness.

For example, the car racing scene at the end of "Stagecoach", a milestone American western film directed by the great director John Ford, is still worth studying today.

Stagecoach directed by John Ford

But the film unreasonably worsens the image of the indigenous Indians, exaggerating them as evil, brutal, barbaric and ignorant primitive people.

The white male protagonist resisted the Indians' overwhelming attack with extraordinary courage and strength.

Stills from "Stage Crossing"

Putting down one and praising the other has a racist feel.

"Stagecoach" successfully made American westerns mainstream in the film industry, and westerns suddenly became popular.

Formulaic plots, stereotyped characters, and graphic visual images gradually fatigue the audience. Film master Sergio Leone once criticized:

"In a sense, if you watch one American Western, you've seen them all. They're so boring because they're always repetitive, the action and violence are predetermined, and people are always talking nonsense."

So after World War II, American westerns weakened the mythologized elements and gradually added thinking about the complex relationships between people in the Wild West, striving to show the various aspects of the Western world.

This is the case with the 1957 version of "Tom Yuma", in which the villain is no longer a stereotyped character with "I'm a bad guy" written on his forehead, but a suave gentleman.

Stills from the 1957 version of "The Battle of Yuma"

The protagonist's horizontal level-breaking adventure is also changed to a battle for supremacy between two heroes who respect each other and the villain hero.

During this period, John Ford also deeply reflected on the colonial mentality of groundless hatred towards Indians. The film he directed, "The Searchers", showed the cruelty and ugliness of white people from the perspective of Indians.

During the same period, European filmmakers also followed the western model. They set up cameras in the Spanish desert and shot a variety of westerns. Among them, the westerns shot by Italian filmmakers were the most famous.

Many American film critics believe that this imported product is a blasphemy to American film culture. They use the most Italian food - macaroni, to insult Italian Westerns as "Spaghetti Westerns".

The market never lies. Overly serious and orthodox American epic films are quickly abandoned. On the contrary, Italian spaghetti westerns have a completely different aesthetic art that is eye-opening.

Stills from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

In the eyes of those Italians, behind the glittering American dream lies a wasteland full of crises. The Indians have long gone, and roaming around are bounty hunters and robbers who whistle and whip their horses. What they represent is not absolute justice, but bounty justice, and sometimes they simply abandon justice.

Take Sergio Leone's popular "Dollars Trilogy" as an example. The cowboy played by Clint Eastwood is an unruly and alternative tough guy. His purpose of adventure is extremely real - purely for money, and eliminating evil and protecting the good is just a piece of cake.

Stills from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

In terms of sound effects, film score master Ennio Morricone abandoned the traditional concept of grand large-scale orchestral music and instead used trumpet, guitar, ocarina, snare drum, as well as natural sounds such as whistles, whips, anvils, bells, etc. He used notes to depict the rough rural customs and the heroic Western world, with a hint of romanticism.

The spaghetti westerns that transcend the original have been feeding back to the new generation of American directors. The genius director Quentin Tarantino has clearly stated:

"If my life has two sides, one side is the Shaw Brothers kung fu movies of the 1970s, and the other side is the Italian Westerns."

The emerging western films also influenced the protagonist of this article, 3:00 to Yuma.

This movie contains almost all the elements of a western: gun-toting cowboys upholding justice, the thrilling love and revenge in the underworld, bloody street fighting under the yellow sand, and the vicissitudes of the desolate western scenery.

In the 1957 version of "Tom Clancy's The Last 30 Days," a pure American western, Dan Evans is a sheriff with excellent marksmanship, recognized by the sheriff, and his family is extremely proud of him.

But in the 2007 version that added a lot of "modern" elements, Dan is no longer the hero with the halo of the protagonist. He no longer has a face full of determination, and one can only find a hint of loneliness in his eyes.

Stills from "Battle at Yuma"

He claimed to be a sharpshooter who was gloriously wounded in the Civil War, but the fact was that he did not fire a single shot on the battlefield and was accidentally shot and disabled by friendly forces while escaping.

Faced with the insults of his creditors and the contempt of his son, Dan still offered the jewelry left to him by his mother and prepared to beg for mercy.

In front of his family, he is as close to being a "coward".

In the 1957 version, upholding justice is Dan's mission and purpose, but in the 2007 version, he took on the task due to the pressure of livelihood, and upholding justice is just a means for him to restore his dignity with his life.

On the other hand, Wade in the 1957 version was only more charming than the traditional fierce villain, but in the 2007 version, he was truly endowed with blood and soul, making the audience unable to bear to call him a villain.

Stills from "Battle at Yuma"

When Wade was 8 years old, his father died of alcoholism and his mother abandoned him at a train station with only a Bible.

Three days later, he finished reading the Bible but his mother did not return. He felt abandoned by God and lost his faith, so he became a thug.

Dan, who was cowardly by nature but persevered to the end for the dignity of a father in his son's eyes, awakened his longing for home buried deep in his heart.

Perhaps without his bad family background, his life would be completely different.

This is why the big twist at the end seems so logical.

If this is just a movie about an American duel between two heroes, it seems very easy to shoot: a few long shots show the Western scenery, a few passionate fights show the heroic qualities, and finally the ultimate duel between good and evil.

Stills from "Battle at Yuma"

But the movie does not take such an old-fashioned route. The film does not use a lot of long shots like traditional American westerns, but more close-ups of the characters, highlighting the delicate relationship between the two people who are both enemies and friends, and portraying the complexity of human nature.

In addition to Italian spaghetti westerns, Japan and South Korea have also produced "Sukiyaki westerns" and "Kimchi westerns."

"Seven Samurai" directed by Akira Kurosawa is full of the chivalrous spirit of western movies, but the protagonists are changed from cowboys to local samurai, and it is regarded as a Japanese western.

Stills from Seven Samurai

"The Magnificent Seven", the ceiling of western films in the minds of countless people, was adapted from this film.

In addition, the most famous lawsuit in film history is also directly related to western films and Akira Kurosawa.

After watching Sergio Leone's western film "A Fistful of Dollars" and finding it very similar to his own film "Yojimbo", Kurosawa sued Leone. In the end, Kurosawa won the case and received 15% of the global box office revenue of "A Fistful of Dollars", which even exceeded the box office revenue of "Yojimbo".

Interestingly, there is a Japanese western film even named "Sukiyaki Western" (キヤキウェスタンジャンゴ). Not only did the film invite Quentin Tarantino to make a cameo appearance, it was also nominated for the Golden Lion Award at the 64th Venice International Film Festival.

"Sukiyaki Western" directed by Takashi Miike

"The Good, the Bad, the Weird" directed by Korean director Kim Jee-woon is known as the pioneering work of Korean westerns. It has an investment of 17 billion won. As the title suggests, the film was inspired by "The Good, the Bad, the Weird".

In China, we also have "Mapo Tofu Westerns".

Some of the best "Mapo Tofu Westerns"

The boundless Gobi Desert and desert grasslands in the western United States can also be found in western my country.

The spirit of punishing evil and promoting good in European and American westerns can also be found in Chinese westerns such as "Ashes of Time", "New Dragon Inn", "The Swordsman from Double Flags", "Kekexili", and "No Man's Land".

Especially "Let the Bullets Fly" directed by Jiang Wen. This movie not only has a Mandarin version, but the official also provides a Sichuan dialect version located in the southwest.

In Hong Kong, China, there are also "Pineapple Bun Westerns".

Peace Hotel, directed by Wai Ka-Fai

"Peace Hotel" directed by Wai Ka-Fai is a representative work of Hong Kong western films.

The style of the film is extremely alternative. The narrative draws on westerns, but it is also full of the exaggeration and madness unique to Hong Kong films.

In addition to these "food westerns" that belong to Hollywood narratives, China also has the unique "loess westerns".

China's western films were proposed by Zhong Dianwei, who called on Chinese directors to walk towards the broad, rich and local-flavored western road to discover the unique and majestic charm of the Northwest.

Based on different historical backgrounds, the American West was primitive and barren, waiting to be cultivated, so westerns are mostly folk tales of conquering the West.

Western China is the birthplace of Chinese civilization and has its own rich cultural heritage. The film will naturally focus on the exploration of western culture and customs, and most of the characters are ordinary western people.

Stills from Yellow Earth

Also because of the huge cultural differences, the classic elements of conquest and occupation in American westerns are almost absent in the Loess Westerns.

Films such as "Red Sorghum", "Yellow Earth" and "Old Well" mostly take a realistic perspective and tell the relationship between people and land.

Stills from Qiu Ju's Lawsuit

Films such as "Qiu Ju Goes to Court" reflect the national character and cultural history, living conditions and confusion of the times nurtured by this land.

Loess Westerns have won many awards internationally, but even more popular among movie fans around the world are the Japanese swordplay films and Chinese Kung Fu films, which, like European and American Westerns, tell the same stories of courage, justice, and humanity.

Perhaps what can make the world agree is the chivalrous dream of "leaving the country after the mission is completed, hiding one's merits and fame."

Source: Phoenix TV Movie Channel

Editor: Fuermoge, Tea