solid Western action

Rating: 7/10 (5 November 2007)

I didn't find the movie as fun or compelling as the original "3:10 To Yuma" basically because the villain wasn't quite as ambiguous and the characters weren't given as much time to develop. Luckily I haven't seen it in quite a few years so I was able to watch this re-make with much the same attitude as someone who hadn't seen the original. It's a satisfying film in and of itself, probably the most solid Western I've seen in the last few years (though I know I did miss a few chapters in this seeming Western Renaissance). The original story is by Elmore Leonard, and this film succeeds IMHO largely because it doesn't try to muck it up or modernize it too much. Other than the female protagonist (Gretchen Moll) the wife of the hero Dan Evans (Christian Bale), none of the characters feel like 21st Century people walking around in the Old West like so many newer Westerns do (and frankly, a lot of 40s/50s Westerns feel like people from the 40s walking around in the Old West. So it's a bit of a universal complaint regarding the genre). She has a line where she has to say "We're supposed to make decisions together, aren't we?" that really seems odd in the context of an 1860s frontier family if you know what I mean. Other than that, it's all pretty much authentic feeling as far as that goes.
A brief summary: Evans is a farmer who's about to lose the family farm to debt, so he agrees to help bring outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to another town where he can catch the 3:10 train to Yuma where he will be imprisoned. Evans' son William (Logan Lerman) decides to set out to help him because he doesn't think his dad is enough of a man to accomplish the task.
You'd expect that the boy would just get himself in trouble and quickly be in need of rescue, so the film earns itself extra points just for avoiding that cliché. However the development of the general angle of the son, father and outlaw is handled in a pretty predictable way. Because the performances are good, it all works and becomes very sad by the end when tragedy strikes. Lerman's work is very good for a juvenile actor and he looks a bit like the young Christian Slater. The story element with the 3 of them evokes some memories of the classic "Shane" with its domesticated man and gunslinger competing in the boy's mind for respect. In fact the movie is far more than most newer Westerns which just go through the motions of the Old West ritual (or Leone's great films, which make ritual itself the centerpiece)  the story engages many of the classic Western themes including the individual vs. society, physical might vs. justice, etc.
I also greatly enjoyed Peter Fonda in the movie; he's aged into quite a solid Western character actor at this point in his career. The scene with his death was one of the more striking in the film, although I couldn't help wondering why they didn't tie Ben Wade up better considering he kept escaping and killing people. There are a number of compelling action scenes in this film, in contrast to the original which as I recall really only had the tension building up to the exciting scene where Evans leads Wade to the train. In this one we have a very nice scene where the good guys actually have to rescue Wade from a vengeful railroad baron and a thrilling stagecoach robbery in addition to the climax.
In the final analysis, I still think Bale has yet to prove to me that he is a compelling actor. He's never embarrassing or unconvincing but I always find him nothing more than serviceable. Crowe on the other hand I haven't seen much of over the years but he really impressed me in this film; I can see why he's such a popular star. It's easy to see why William is enchanted to some extent with him, and the fact that Crowe has so much more screen presence than Bale actually does benefit this film and fit the characters. This is a Western that seems to accomplish the impossible  it will not bore young viewers addicted to fast editing and constant action, but it will also not offend those with more traditional tastes in Westerns. The music is stand-out as well, eschewing the modernist tendencies of newer Westerns like Dwight Yoakam's "South of Heaven, West of Hell" but also not feeling completely out of place in a newer Western. I would say this is a solid production all-around and will satisfy the hunger for Westerns for those like myself who feel seriously under-fed by Hollywood these days.