On a 4K Blu-ray and 4K TV - Scott Murray relishes 3.10 TO YUMA (Delmer Daves) and CESAR ET ROSALIE (Claude Sautet)

To test a new 4K large TV, I chose a 4k Blu-ray transfer of Delmer Daves' classic Western, 3:10 to Yuma. Click the images below to enlarge them.

4K Blu-ray and TV - Van Heflin, 3.10 to Yuma

I was only going to watch a minute, but I watched every minute, for the countless time, because it's a perfect film, where the good but seemingly weak Dan Evans (Van Heflin) has to guard a psychopathic and fatally charming killer, Ben Wade (Glenn Ford). 

4K Blu-ray and TV - Glenn Ford, 3.10 to Yuma

During their extremely tense battle of wills, Ben tries to corrupt Dan in the countdown to Ben being sent to prison on the 3:10 train.

The final scene, as redemptive as anything in Bresson, has Ben help Dan escape Ben's gang of outlaws. 

The film closes with the two men on a train, as it approaches Dan's wife, Alice (Leora Dana), waiting in a carriage beside the railway tracks. Ben had flirted with Alice in front of Dan, so these are men, apart from everything else, have fought over a woman.

4K Blu-ray and TV - Leora Dana, 3.10 to Yuma

But, at the end of the struggle over what constitutes good and courage and survival and fear, there is a close-up of Ben looking at Dan with admiration, and understanding, and love. 

Dan is glowing with joy because he has just seen his wife and a three-year drought has broken. Ben does not think about his going to gaol and possible execution, he responds only and purely to Dan's joy.

At the end of Claude Sautet's astonishing César et Rosalie, two men of different generations and life views duel long and hard over Rosalie (Romy Schneider). But by film's end, she is long gone and the two men, César (Yves Montand) and David (Sami Frey), have found a certain peace and friendship. After all, why should two men who love the same woman, and both loved by her, hate each other, as is the norm in American cinema? 

4K TV - Sami Frey, Yves Montand, Cesar et Rosalie

Unexpectedly, Rosalie pulls up in a taxi at César's front gate. The men, who are having lunch together at an upstairs window, see Rosalie arrive. 

David does not think of himself or how he has no doubt lost out again to César, he turns to look at César with admiration, and understanding, and love. He basks in César's joy at seeing Rosalie. 

4K TV - Romy Scheider, Cesar et Rosalie

In both films, one man can be seen as a winner and the other not. But the 'loser' feels only joy for his friend, and in that moment experiences transcendence.