GUNS AND HORSES DREW STARS TO 3:10 TO YUMA

Russell Crowe stars as the leader of a notorious gang out to pillage railroads in the Old West, and Christian Bale is the hard working farmer who sets out to catch him so he could put food on his family’s table in 3:10 To Yuma.

Crowe and Bale were both attracted to their characters for riding the colts and shooting the Colt 45s.

“For me it was just reading the script and seeing the balance of the character which made me interested in wanting to do it. Certain aspects of the film, riding horses, shooting single action Colts were just fun for me so that’s why I did it. I mean he is someone who’s having trouble putting food on the table for his family so you didn’t want him to look like somebody who had eaten all the pies. But other than that just familiarity with my horse; spent a lot of time doing that and with my gun.”

Russell and Christian might’ve felt comfortable with the guns and horses but they weren’t exactly director James Mangold’s favorite moments.

“He had a cracker of a time at one point where Jim thought he was going to be able to stampede cattle and they would take a left turn just because that’s how he marked the path. I was trying to catch him. I said, ‘Jimmy, mate it don’t work that way. You stampede those cattle they’re gonna go up that hill, and we’re gonna be hanging around here for two hours getting the cattle down from the hill.’ He goes, ‘no but the path’s marked clearly.’ It’s a f**kin’ cow! Jimmy. It’s a cow. It’s not gonna go around the corner like that. He said, ‘OK let’s see what happens.’ We did see what happened. Bang bang they stampeded and up the bloody mountain they went and two hours later we’re still twiddling our thumbs waiting for the cattle to come down from the top of the mountain.”

Russell knows a thing or two about rustling cattle and horses as he lives with his family on his own ranch in Nana Glen, Australia. He recently built stables there for the upcoming film Australia, starring Nicole Kidman as an aristocratic rancher in the 1940s Outback.