“3:10 to Yuma” is a brilliant and at times funny western starring Russel Crowe (“Gladiator”) and Christian Bale (“Batman Begins”) as two men battling wit and weapon while on their way to catch a train in the dry heat of Arizona’s wild west.
Bale plays Dan Evans, a one-legged rancher who is desperately trying to salvage his drought-ridden land and cattle from greedy debt-collectors in a time when they’d burn your house down instead of sending you a bill.
While in town one day, the infamous outlaw Ben Wade (Russel Crowe) is caught, and for a $200 reward Dan agrees to help escort Ben to the town of Contention and on the train to Yuma, where Ben will be imprisoned and hanged.
The journey to Contention is filled with bloodshed and tension as Ben’s crew is after the posse. Dan must decide to stay and risk his life in an attempt to collect the reward, or take Ben’s advice and simply let him go in exchange for a sum far greater than he was offered for the task.
The underlying battle is between these two men and their ideas on what it means to be a “real man”. Ben seems to admire Dan’s family-man do-rightness while Dan is attracted to Ben’s lone gunman, take-what-you-want nature. On their way to Contention, both men seem to be on a process of redemption.
I urge you not to ditch this movie. It’s a great story with a relatively similar to the original (see 1957’s “3:10 to Yuma” based on Elmore Leonard’s short story), but gives us a different and deeper understanding of the two main characters.
As he did in “The Prestige”, Bale plays the “weaker man” and we’re rooting for him all the way. He’s a desperate man up against time and the disapproval of his wife and children, but determined to rise up even when life is beating him down. Crowe is great as the Scripture-quoting bad guy always offering entertaining, manly quips to Dan’s desperate wisdom.
I’m not a huge fan of westerns either, but this movie is awesome. A gunslinging, wild west epic about man’s struggle to provide, to be respected and remembered, “3:10 to Yuma” is western worth watching.
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