The Good, The Bad, and the Magnificent

Rating: 9/10 (10 September 2007)

In Hollywood, it seems, all good things come in threes. One studio decides to release a vigilante film and two others follow with their own takes on the same theme. Given this, there's no reason why the venerable western, a genre that Hollywood hasn't revisited in years, should be any exception. What's more, if James Mangold's re-envisioning of 3:10 to Yuma is any indication, this year's trio of westerns (soon to be followed by the Brad Pitt vehicle The Assassination of Jesse James, and the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men) may well yield some of the best entertainment in quite a while.
Based on the 1957 Glenn Ford/Van Heflin picture, which was, in turn, based on a 1953 short story by Elmore Leonard (52 Pickup, Get Shorty), Mangold embraces his subject matter with unabashed enthusiasm, along the way paying stylistic homage to oater icons John Ford and Sergio Leone, to deliver a movie that is as complex and character driven as it is packed with lead-spewing action.
Russell Crowe brings the same brooding intensity he mined in 2003's Master and Commander to the role of Ben Wade, the ruthless leader of a gang of outlaws that has made their mark robbing stagecoaches while foiling all efforts of the Pinkerton agency to both safeguard their booty and reign in the gang.
Crowe's black heart is counterbalanced by the quiet upstanding righteousness of Dan Evans (Christian Bale), who plays a down on his luck rancher trying to eke out a living for his family and avoid foreclosure by an unsympathetic land owner hell bent on selling Evans' land to the railroad. When Wade is finally corralled, Evans seizes the opportunity to hire himself out to the Pinkertons and transport Wade to a nearby town and put him on the 3:10 train to Yuma prison.
From there, the story of two men, each centered in a morally different universe, unfolds as Mangold piles layer upon layer of character depth upon each, while at the same time picking away at the bleakness of Wade's fiber to slowly reveal glimmers of humanity.
Supported by a top notch cast of veterans and newcomers such as Peter Fonda, Logan Lerman, Gretchen Mol, Alan Tudyk, Luke Wilson, and the impressive Ben Foster (Alpha Dog) as psycho gunslinger and Wade's right hand man Charlie Prince, Mangold delivers a rich tableau that speaks to the true, humble motivations of heroism and the ability for empathy to be found even in the darkest recesses of the self-centered human heart. Rounded off with a twangy score that evokes the spirit of Ennio Morricone, 3:10 to Yuma nicely ensconces itself as one of the great modern westerns, alongside Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, Kevin Costner's Open Range, and the best of Sergio Leone's saddle sagas.