3:10 to Incredulity

Rating: 4/10 (31 October 2008)

When Dan Evans, one-legged Civil War veteran and impoverished rancher is having one of his barns burned down by his landlord and about to be evicted because he is unable to pay the rent, things seem credible enough. But soon, "3:10 to Yuma" stops making any sense at all. For starters, Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) and his gang of cut-throats have little trouble in stopping a stagecoach protected by a crackerjack team of heavily armed guards contracted by the Pinkertons. To boot, the stagecoach is equipped with the new-fangled Gatling (machine) gun. Despite the heavy artillery, the escort is no match for Wade and his boys with the help of a sharpshooter in the hills who never misses. Okay, then there's the leader of the Pinkerton group, Byron McElroy (Peter Fonda) who's entrusted to deliver the stagecoach cache of money to a nearby town. When Wade's psychopathic lieutenant Charlie Prince (convincingly played by Ben Foster) shoots McElroy point blank in the stomach, he doesn't die but merely doubles over.
Although Wade is supposed to be this crazy outlaw responsible for a string of outlandish heists and murders, he really isn't that badhe's one of those touchy-feely bad guys with a chivalrous heart underneath. Inexplicably, he lets McElroy live. But just to show that he also has a dark side, murders one of his own men when a surviving member of the stagecoach posse takes the man hostage (Wade shoots both men). Wade first meets Evans and his two kids who have been watching the robbery of the stagecoach from afar. Even though they're witnesses to his nefarious deeds, Wade lets them go and apologetically takes their horses and lets them know where they can find them later. Even though Wade is supposed to be this brilliant criminal, he's easily trapped by local law enforcement after he tarries too long in the town with a barmaid he suddenly has the hots for.
Instead of locking Wade up locally and paying for a more professional team of law enforcement or Federal soldiers to help him, Grayson Butterfield, the Southern Pacific Railroad's representative, decides to conscript Evans, McElroy and a couple of other miscreants to march Wade through hostile Indian territory where they can catch the '3:10 to Yuma' and have him transported to where he can be put on trial. Their plan is to first stop off at the Evans ranch where they create a diversion, making Wade's gang believe that they're taking Wade in a stagecoach in the opposite direction but actually have Wade remain at the ranch where he has a nice but long-winded conversation with Wade's impressionable wife. Even though they're all afraid of the mighty power of Wade's men (with the memory of the defeat of the Pinkerton group fresh in their minds), they believe this particular stagecoach can outrun the gang all the way to a local fort. Sure enough, the gang outruns the coach, kills all the drivers and chains the Wade decoy inside the stagecoach and burns him to death. What a brilliant plan! On the way through the aforementioned hostile Indian territory, McElroy keeps chugging along despite having been shot point blank in the stomach. Wade kills McElroy after we learn that McElroy was not such a good guy after all (he murdered a bunch of Apache women and children in cold blood). Somehow every time Wade kills someone it's justified because his victims are far more morally tainted than he (Wade kills another one of the posse escorting him after we learn that this is the man who was principally responsible for burning Evan's barn down).
By the time we reach the town of Contention where the 3:10 to Yuma is about to arrive, we realize that all the townspeople are a bunch of cowards who are willing to accept $200 a pop by Wade's gang to kill Evans and the local sheriff and deputies who have volunteered to help Butterfield. Not only are all the townspeople in Contention browbeaten but the sheriff and his deputies also surrender their weapons to the gang (only to be blown away seconds later). You can watch one of the extras on the DVD and discover that some of the most notorious outlaws in the history of the old west were taken down by the local citizenry who were outraged by their antics. But not so here in '3:10 to Yuma'. When Evans singlehandedly attempts to move Wade to the train station where he can put him in the prison car, Wade cooperates and never tries to run away. Wade's gang fires round after round at BOTH Evans and Wade without regard to hitting their boss. Finally, when Charlie shoots Evans at the climax of the movie, Wade suddenly becomes a man of conscience and finishes off Charlie and the rest of his gang and then places himself in the prison car without batting an eyelash.
If you watch the DVD Extras, you'll get a fascinating look at how they put this movie together. There's some nice cinematography, passable performances and costumes but many of the scenes are incredibly drawn out (Wade's conversation with Evans's wife at the homestead and conversation with Evans at the hotel for example) and as I have already argued, a plot that makes little sense. Given the money that was put into this project, strictly from a writing standpoint, '3:10' is a decided failure!