As a precursor to our film project, 12 Western Feature-Length Films in 12 Months, which Running Wild Films and 5J Media will start producing in 2016, director Travis Mills shares his thoughts on films from the genre as he studies Westerns in preparation for our own.

This series of short blogs is titled “Western Impressions”.

3:10 to Yuma (1957)

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I had only seen the new one. I suspected something better but I did not suspect a masterpiece. Glenn Ford is such a charmingly bad son of a bitch in this. I feel for him when he’s with the woman, I hate him when he’s trying to talk Heflin down, and I love him when he makes the decision at the end. Heflin is the heart of the picture, he’s the foundation. Even if Delmer Daves never made another Western, he would be one of the great Western masters just for this film alone.

Lasting impression: When the woman tells Glenn Ford, “Funny, some men you see every day for ten years and you never notice; some men you see once and they’re with you for the rest of your life.”