I’ve always been a big fan of westerns, but only if they are GOOD westerns. Recently I enjoyed Open Range with Kevin Costner and Seraphim Falls starring Pierce Brosnan.
It took awhile, but I was finally able to see 3:10 to Yuma, a movie I had heard great things about last year and was definitely on my must-see list.
The movie focuses on Russell Crowe as a Ben Wade, the leader of a gang of outlaws who continually terrorize and rob armored stagecoaches of the Southern Pacific Railroad. These stagecoaches carry the company’s payroll in them and despite being reinforced with armor and a Gatling gun, they still fall victim to Wade’s deadly gang.
The other character in the film is Dan Evans, played by Christian Bale, an actor who never fails to impress me in his character and movie choices. Evans is a rancher who himself is being terrorized by the owners of the land he’s on. He doesn’t put up a fight though, and the reflection of his cowardice in his own son’s eyes eats at him.
Evans and his two boys find a man who was shot by Wade’s gang at the last hijacking and they take him into Bisbee, Arizona to get medical help.
Wade is there and after a few over-confident moves, gets captured by the local sheriff.
Now a man like Wade isn’t too worried about this, because his gang out-guns any law force in any town. It wouldn’t take them long to find out he’s been captured and to come get him.
A representative of the Railroad company wants justice for Wade’s crimes and pays a group of men to escort Wade to the town of Contention where he’ll be put on the 3:10 train headed to Yuma and the prison that resides there.
Evans, who needs the money to save his ranch, accepts the $200 to do it.
The movie focuses on Wade and Evans, two very different men, one trying to redeem himself in the eyes of his son, the other so dangerous that you wouldn’t turn your back on him if he was handcuffed with no weapons.
The scenes between these two are awesome and what you’d expect from Crowe and Bale. There is nothing they can’t do in terms of acting and pitting them both against each other was brilliant casting.
The surprises and events that happen along the way to Contention result in great storytelling and awesome, tense moments. You find out just what kind of men both of these guys are. How different they are, and maybe how similar they just might be.
Will Evans somehow get Wade on that train, despite his entire gang in pursuit and likely ending up between him and the train platform?
The finish is hard to predict if you haven’t seen the original version, at least for me, and I found myself waiting with baited breath to see how it happened.
After all that, the ending wasn’t as impressive as I hoped, but the movie overall was filled with such great acting, good shootouts, tricks and cunning, it was well-worth seeing.
On a side note, Ben Foster played Wade’s second-in-command, Charlie Prince, and he’s an actor who I’ve really enjoyed seeing start to rise. I saw him last in Alpha Dog, a great film and another good role for him. He was so evil and so deadly devoted to Wade in 3:10 to Yuma, the movie wouldn’t have been as good without him.
And finally, I just loved the poster for this movie, which you can see below.
AML Rating: B+
I loved the movie as well, although I was more impressed with Crowe than with Bale. Bale did a terrific job of playing the character, but the character wasn’t written to have much range. I blame the writers for that. It’s a common Western cliche, although thankfully, Crowe’s character is great. I love characters that go through a major change through the length of the movie (reason why Angus McFayden’s Robert the Bruce is the best character in Braveheart), and Crowe does go through a change that you wouldn’t really expect at the beginning of the film. Even with this minor fault in the script, everyone involved pulls it off well.
You’re absolutely right about Ben Foster. What an evil sumbitch…
I agree with you on this movie. I actually have this as one of my top movies for the year (not the very top, but top 10 I’d say). I think the poster might be the best of the year. I was disappointed in the DVD cover as it completely changed the look.
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