3:10 To Yuma - Review

"3:10 To Yuma"
Rating: 4 out of 4 stars

"Twenty-two robberies. Over four hundred thousand dollars in losses. More in delays. The Southern Pacific will have Ben Wade convicted in a federal court. Hanged in public. An example made. And we will pay to make it happen."
"Y'all notice he didn't mention any of the lives I've taken."

The Western has been perhaps the most underused genre of recent film. The days of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood are long gone, and not many people seem to want to try and recreate them. Well, thank goodness for James Mangold, whose remake of the 1957 film 3:10 To Yuma is every bit as good as the old Westerns I've seen. It's not your classic Wild West shoot-em-up at every corner movie; make no mistake, there's gunfire in this movie and lots of it, but it's much more than that.

It's tough to go wrong when your two lead actors are Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, and both are excellent here. Crowe is Ben Wade, a notorious outlaw, whose gang loots an armored stagecoach, only to have Bale's rancher Dan Evans come across the mess. Problem here: Wade used Evans' cattle as a blockade for the raid. But no harm done, and the two men ride off their separate ways. However, Evans stumbles across a few railroad men and reveals to them Wade caused the raid, and they head to Bixbee where they arrest him. The goal now: to get Wade on the 3:10 prison train to Yuma in two days. A few men take up the cause, including Evans, who agrees to help in order to gain some much-needed money for his deprived family. However, the gang is closely followed by Wade's band of outlaws, and as the journey continues the stage is set for one final showdown. That's all the plot you'll get out of here.

The most fascinating thing about this movie isn't about the fights and the gunfire and the shoot-em-up pageantry, it's the characters themselves. Wade is a bad man and he knows it, but there's a certain charm about him as well. He seems to be a no-good badass, but paired with the honest, faithful Evans, the two begin to form an interesting dynamic. Calling it a "bond" would be a stretch but the relationship between the two men is vital to the story. It's ironic, because Crowe is facing off against the same type of character he portrays so accurately with Richie Roberts in American Gangster. The comparisons to Roberts there and Evans here are definitely not a stretch. While these two steal the spotlight, credit must be given to the rest of the excellent cast. No big names are here besides the two leads and Peter Fonda, but the acting is superb. In particular, Ben Foster shines as Wade's cocky second-in-command Charlie Prince, and 15-year-old Logan Lerman is very convincing as Evans' son.

The bottom line here; 3:10 To Yuma is not a movie you want to miss. The Western is definitely not dead, and this is a damn good movie that ranks up there with No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood among the best films of 2007. Don't miss it.