3:10 to Yuma-An Outstanding Movie

Movie Review

-3:10 to Yuma-September 2007-

It’s been far too long since the last “real” western came out. You know the kind with outlaws who can shoot faster than any lawman and do whatever they please. That’s why I was very excited when I first saw previews for James Mangold’s 3:10 to Yuma. I think the last good western to come out before 3:10 to Yuma was Unforgiven.

What made this movie so good was the quality of the acting. When I saw the previews for 3:10 to Yuma I looked it up on Google and found that it was actually a re-make. I rented the original version that is now over 50 years old, and found that it really wasn’t as good. I went into the research a little deeper and found out that the whole story line started out as a short story and was made into a movie in 1957. Russell Crowe is one of my favorite actors, mostly because he can play almost any role. I recently saw American Gangster and thought that he nailed the part of the “good cop”, and of course how could you not like his performance in Gladiator? I don’t think there could have been two better actors for this movie than Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.

3:10 to Yuma was a well-written plot filled with robberies, gunfights, and much more action. Your first encounter with Dan Evans (Christian Bale) is fraught with excitement. The opening scene shows a gang burning down Dan’s barn. We later find out that Dan owes the Land Office a good deal of money and hasn’t been repaying it fast enough. The gang that burned down Dan’s barn was hired by the man who was owed money, trying to scare Dan off of his land so he could sell it to the railroad. The morning after his barn was burned down, Dan and his two sons set out to find his cattle that the gang let loose that night. While rounding up his cattle, Dan hears some commotion in the distance. He rides his horse over to see what is going on, and his witnesses the end of a stage coach robbery, by a gang lead by none other than Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) himself. Ben Wade is the most famous outlaw in the Arizona Territory, some say no one can shoot faster than him and his pistol (The Hand of God). The stagecoach that Ben Wade was robbing was a bank pay-role coach, loaded with more than just money. Every person on the stage coach had more than one weapon, not to mention the gantline gun on the back.

When Ben and Dan first meet there is no quarrel, Dan simply lays down his guns and tells Ben that he is merely rounding up his cattle. Ben takes Dan’s horses as an insurance policy to make sure Dan doesn’t tell anyone what he had done. Later on in the movie, Ben is eventually captured, because he sticks around too long tending to his lady friend in the town of Bisbee. (To be continued.)