And the moral of the story is...

Rating: 7/10 (6 January 2013)

Set in the Wild West of the United States in 1884, it's a convoluted story of two men, their values and beliefs, and the journey they embark upon. Russell Crowe is the renegade Ben Wade, while Christian Bale plays a limp, father-of-two-boys, struggling farmer named Daniel Evans. Percy Jackson's Logan (Wade*) Lerman, ironically plays the 14-year-old son that could be inferred to be Wade's own! Velvet, the green-eyed beauty Ben believes to be his soul-mate, could be Dan's wife's former self as a dancer in Dodge, Alice Evans played with dignity by Gretchen Mol. A farmer has lost his faith. His land is dirt, as arable as the Sahara Desert! His cows needs feed, and his last bags are burning inside his barn. The train, the sea-to-sea passageway across the widest part of the North American Peninsula, needs his land, and Dan's clawing at clouds trying to stay afloat. The heartless Railway bullies want him out whatever it takes. The bankers want their taxes, and the wife is nagging for his attention. Enter Ben Wade and his merry men. About as merry as an Apache in a Ku Klux Klan convention! The film delves deeper into his psyche than Dan's, and Ben needs all the development he can get! He represents the black side of the Yin-Yang: just a touch of good in him, as we see at the films grand finale. The white side's black dot can be represented by Dan's scene of rage, and what set it off; or whom! They are mirror opposites and see in each other what the other lacks. Both fought the Civil War on the "wrong side", both are trying to be men of their words', and both want to teach each other a lesson. But there is where their similarities end. Ben has issues as great as the Devil reincarnate! Ben Wade's mother put a knife to his father's throat the night before she sat him on a train station bench, told him to read the Bible, and never returned. He says it took him three days to finish, at the ripe ol'age of 8. He loved a woman that loved her life. He wanted Paradiso, New Mexico while she liked to boogie! Thus his infatuation with green eyes. Now, where's the moral of the story? Dan decides to deliver Ben to a train departing at the title's time and location for a $200 pay, which turns out to be the amount he was paid for losing a leg while retreating from a battle, and (cream on top) being shot by friendly fire! 'What goes around, comes around'? Ben shows us his true colours just minutes after the repetitive studio logos are finished. After being interrupted sketching a hawk by his first Lieutenant {the ever-evil Ben Foster as Charlie Prince(ss)}, Ben and the gang destroy an armoured coach, about 5 armed guards, a semi- automatic Tommy gun, and one of his own men. He seems to kill with a purpose, unlike his gang that seem to enjoy it more like a hunt, than a murder. This is no survival of the fittest! As the pair journey to Yuma, Ben slowly evening the odds along the way, they encounter foreign resistance which leads, inevitably, for them to join forces to defeat: the Apaches, the rail-road, . Even though one kills to steal money to achieve his dream (living by the sea in Mexico with a scrumptious green-eyed beauty) while the other kills for a $200 pay to maintain his dream (living with his beautiful, green-eyed wife & two kids, in a luscious, rain-soaked prairie that one day God will provide), they both go beyond expectations to appease their own unique view of what is "right". Truth exists only behind the eyes of its believer! Even when Dan is offered the money to walk away, once by Ben, and once by the snivelling accountant, he believes its his prerogative to show his son his valour, before he dies! And so Dan died believing he did right, while Ben Wade sits on the train to a prison he's escaped from numerous times before. Good guys die young, and Bad guys get laid? While Ben was acting out his hate and contempt for life, Dan displayed some very egotistical traits. He left a widow and two fatherless sons on a useless farm so he could prove to himself he wasn't a gutless wonder for obeying a retreat order! Logan's role deserves a whole adolescent-hates-dad treatment, but is worth watching nonetheless to see the magnificent arc his character undertakes. * Logan's real middle name is Russell's character's surname: Ben Wade. (http://moral-in-movies.blogspot.com.au/)