A dying breed of film.

Rating: 9/10 (30 September 2007)

By all means, get yourself to a theater and enjoy this wonderful Western while you still can! Very few quality Westerns are made for the big screen anymore. Every now and then you get a gem like Unforgiven or Open Range, but Hollywood just doesn't churn out quality "oaters" like it churns out animated penguin movies and comic book adaptations and things like that. Right now, there is an outstanding film named 3:10 to Yuma playing on the full screen! Go see it! That said, let's take a closer look at the film. This version is a remake of a film by the same name released some fifty years ago. The story is originally based on a short story from Elmore Leonard. The plot deals with a down-on-his-luck honest cattle rancher (Bale) who crosses paths with a dangerous outlaw (Crowe) and his men after a daring stagecoach hold-up. The outlaw, known as Ben Wade, ends up spending a little too much time after the hold-up in town with a beautiful woman. Before he can escape and re-join his gang, he is surrounded and taken into custody by a motley group of town folk and would-be lawmen. The rancher, in town to dispute a debt, also helps hold him. Now, Wade must be taken to a nearby town where he will catch the train of record which will take him to prison and a certain trip to the gallows. The rancher and others sign up for the trip for a price of $200 each. The rest of the film deals with the trip to the railroad town, and the myriad of complications and dangers faced by the men trying to deliver Wade to justice. The action seldom lets up for long, and the conversations that buffer the action are full of intelligent dialog spoken by memorable characters.
That is one of the film's biggest strengths. Most of the characters in this film are distinctly drawn and full of color. They aren't simply random guys on horseback who peer out from under big cowboy hats. We learn about these men as individuals, and some of them are absolutely unforgettable. Wade's lieutenant, played by Ben Foster, might in fact be the most memorable character in the film. This is one bad-arsed hombre who keeps the gang right on the good guys' heels. You might think this guy would clearly be able to take over the gang himself, yet he has a strange and unexplained fascination with rescuing Wade. There might well be a lot more going on than we're told, anyway. After a time, we get the sense that Wade might not be all that fond of his old gang. He obviously feels superior to them and perhaps has simply used them for all these years because they are just a bunch of hardened killers who happen to be good at robbing coaches. I'd hate to give too much away, but the film's final scene pretty much confirms this hypothesis. The young man playing Bale's bold son also stands out memorably. We'll be seeing more from that young man over the years.
3:10 to Yuma has perhaps the highest body count of any Western since The Outlaw Josey Wales. I have never seen anyone put a Gatling gun on the back of a stagecoach before. Hard to believe it wasn't enough to stop the gang. There are some elements of the plot that may be tough to swallow from a conventional perspective, though. Vinessa Shaw is a hottie, but would she really be worth getting caught over? Maybe! Could a man with a wooden leg be able to outrun dozens of men shooting at him? Nah! But the scene is exciting! Much like the rest of the film. I urge all of you once again to go see it! 9 of 10 stars.
The Hound.