3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Movie Title: 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Actors: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale
Director: James Mangold
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English
Studio: Lions Gate Home Entertainment
Run Time: 122 minutes
Movie Review:
Although many say the Western is dead, in books as well as movies, it continues to rear its head and make itself known every so often. There's something inherently noble and visceral about the artform and the subject matter, the calm delineation between good and evil, that stubbornly continues to attract an audience. In 2007, the Western showed back up at the box office in a trio of films that came out roughly at the same time.
3:10 TO YUMA was the first out of the gate, but it was followed in quick order by THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. The movie had been made fifty years ago, and much of the plot in that version made it into the remake. Both movies were based on a short story by Elmore Leonard, who has had several of his Western and crime novels made into films.
Christian Bale stars as Dan Evans, a one-legged, down-on-his-luck rancher struggling to keep a home together for his wife and two kids. Russell Crowe plays Ben Wade, an intelligent and heartless outlaw who's leading one of the blood-thirstiest gangs to ever take up the owlhoot trail. Both stars take turns stealing scenes. Bale has the hard-edged look of coarse rawhide. Crowe possesses some of the deadest eyes ever shown in movies. One of the best portrayals in the movie was a surprise to me, though. It took me a minute to recognize Peter Fonda as professional bounty hunter turned Pinkerton agent Byron McElroy. Fonda reminded me a lot of his father Henry, but part of that is because Fonda has aged. He also delivers a quality of acting and honesty in the character that is just amazing, and he was content to carry the supporting character role and didn't try to upstage anyone.
Logan Lerman was another surprise. He stared as William Evans, Dan's 14-year-old son. I'd thought Lerman was much older, but as it turned out he was 14 when the movie was made. He was likeable and intense. When it came to truly cold-blooded villains, though, Ben Foster as Charlie Prince totally blew me away. The hair on the back of my neck went up as soon as he stepped on stage, and within a minute I hated him.
The story is simple. Dan is struggling to make ends meet and bumps into Wade during an armored wagon job. Later, after taking Byron McElroy into town for medical attention, Dan confronts Hollander, the man who's trying to run him off his land. When Hollander won't give him an extension on his loan, Dan finds Wade and helps take him captive. Then he agrees to help transport him to Yuma for $200.
The movie quickly spins out into the action of the violent road trip. In addition to being one of the fastest gunmen around, Wade is also a skilled psychological warrior, constantly taunting his captors and seeking out their weaknesses. The action involves traveling through hostile Indian lands, meeting up with a team of killers working the railroad coming through the area, and a final showdown in Yuma that is one of the most exciting I've ever seen in a Western.
For two hours, I sat marveling at the characters, then tensely awaiting the outcome of the latest danger they were all facing. Even then, the twists and turns of the characters, the back stories they were all hiding till the very last moment, were awesome. No one was quite who I thought they were. Westerns succeed best by having good men with a history of bad violence and bad men who haven't completely gone over to the dark side.
3:10 TO YUMA is one of those. One caveat I will offer to people who have seen the original movie starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin, this version does NOT follow the same paths or end up the same way. Expect to be surprised and shocked at how things turn out. And you'll be tense nearly the whole way through. --By Mel Odom (Moore, OK USA)
Plot Synopsis:
The legendary outlaw, Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) and his gang have just robbed an armed stage coach carrying the Southern Pacific Railroads payroll. They kill everyone onboard except Pinkerton guard, Byron McElroy (Peter Fonda) whom Wade shoots in the belly. A poor rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale) and his two sons find McElroy and take him to Bisbee, Arizona to find a doctor. Ben Wade is in town without his gang and the sheriff immediately surrounds the hotel. Dan distracts Ben Wade, who is captured without a shot being fired. Railroad representative Grayson Butterfield (Dallas Roberts) asks for paid volunteers to join McElroy's posse to take Wade to the train station in the town of Contention three days away. The train is due at 3:10, and they must put Wade on the train's prison car bound for Yuma. Once Wade arrives in Yuma, he will receive a quick trial in Federal Court and be hanged. Dan Evans, desperately needing money to save his farm, agrees to help transport Wade to Contention but he must be paid $200. The other paid volunteers who join the posse are Tucker (Kevin Durand) and Doc Potter (Alan Tudyk), the town's veterinarian. Unfortunately for the posse, Charlie Prince (Ben Foster), Wade's right hand man, sees what has happened to Wade, and he goes after the rest of the gang to help liberate Wade.
Despite a deception to fool the gang, the odds move in their favour, and in the end it's Dan's desire to impress his sons that means getting him on the train becomes a personal battle of wills. In a hotel in Contention City, where the remains of the posse hide out, Wade continues to bargain for his freedom.
Despite very tempting offers, Evans ignores his pleas. Wade's gang rides into town, and, after locating their boss, recruit as many of the townspeople as possible with an offer of $200 for the successful killing of any member of Evans' posse. The sherriff and his men, previously offering help to Evans, decide to surrender. They are gunned down, and Butterfield, terrified, offers Evans the $200 to just walk away. Evans, realizing the parallels between his current situation and the one in which the government paid for his leg lost in the Civil War, says, "It's funny, if you think about it - which I have been lately - is...they weren't paying me to walk away. They were paying me so they could walk away." Butterfield promises to see Evans' son home, but Evans want Butterfield to promise more than that. Butterfield is convinced to pay off Evans' debts, make sure his water flows, and that he will give $1000 dollars to his wife on Butterfield's return. Butterfield agrees, and he and William hold up in a room down the hall.
When the time for action, Evans brings Wade outside and they run for the station. Wade's gang pursues them relentlessly, and they barely make it to the station in one piece. At the very moment that the protagonist Dan Evans is putting Ben Wade onto the prison train, Wade's gang shoots the rancher to death. Ben Wade takes his gun from his right-hand man Charlie Prince and, in an act of vengeance for the rancher who had earned his respect, murders every man of his gang. Ben Wade boards the prison train as a final act of symbolic tribute to the rancher who died getting him there, and whistles for his horse as the train drives into the distance.
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