All Aboard!

The “old west” is as American as any one thing we have in our culture. It is exclusively ours. The west has its rightful place with apple pie and Fourth of July. Over the years the cinema has captured this piece of Americana with grandeur and wonderment. Yes, there was the spaghetti western trilogy of Sergio Leone, but they captured the essence of what the west was and what it would soon become, even though they were filmed in Spain and Italy. Westerns used to be common place in the movies and demanded iconic actors to take on the roles of Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, and Butch Cassidy. Recently, Hollywood has strayed away from the western because those films do not make money and our fascination with the west has dwindled. A lot of modern westerns have become stylistic with Matrix like action and have lost their charm in telling stories of good vs. evil. 3:10 to Yuma is that movie. It is the western I’ve wanted to see. Charming? No. Harsh? Yes. Stylistic? No. A tale of the good nature of some and the evil ways of others? Yes. This movie relies heavily on its actors to carry a simple story and it does so effortlessly.
Christian Bale (Batman Begins) plays Dan Evans, a rancher who is on the verge of losing his farm to a major railroad company. Dan is a man tortured by being discharged from the Union Army due to a “battle” wound. He has lost favor in his oldest son’s eyes and his wife has not looked at him in years. Yet, Dan holds onto hope and out of hope, he becomes a desperate man to save his family from certain demise. Bale plays Evans perfectly. He isn’t the prototypical hero that we have become accustomed to in most action epics. Dan’s whole story never unfolds into the final frames and this a true credit to the screen writers.
Evan’s life changes drastically when he runs into wanted criminal Ben Wade played by Russell Crowe (Gladiator). Crowe is as good as he as ever been. He is mean, nasty, and dangerous. There is also a sadness built into his character and it something we see on screen, however, we are not sure if his sympathies are genuine. For me, this is the strength of Crowe as an actor and it is what makes him special. When Evans and Wade first meet Crowe does not endear himself to Dan. He takes Dan’s horses and has accidentally killed two of his cattle. Later, the two meet as Wade is captured in town and 3:10 to Yuma begins to move.
The plot is simple. Get Ben Wade to the prison train in Yuma before his gang comes to free him. Wade’s escorts consist of a bounty hunter (played by Peter Fonda), a veterinarian, a railroad representative, and Dan Evan’s who takes two hundred dollars to help bring Wade to justice. A lot happens in between and we get classic camp fire scenes, horses riding across the mythical west, and a gang of the meanest bastards hunting down the convoy. It is in this simplicity that this movie works because there is an increasing tension throughout the journey, but the most pleasant surprise of the movie is Ben Foster (X-Men 3) as Charlie Prince, the loyal sidekick of Ben Wade. Foster probably won’t receive a best supporting actor nod, but he should be under consideration.
3:10 to Yuma worked for me on multiple levels. There is a rich, heart tugging story between a boy and his father, a villain who lives amongst codes and not laws, and the old west in all of its glory. This movie is very American and captures the essence of good action yarn. Yuma is a 1957 remake and I usually hate remakes, but this movie deserved to be treated with great actors such as Bale and Crowe. I am glad it received the proper respect it deserved and I am certain you’ll enjoy boarding the 3:10 to Yuma.