As good as it could be.

Rating: 8/10 (21 May 2018)

This is a great example of how good a traditional raw plot can be. The characters in this movie and the structure of the story are very straightforward and easy to dissect, but it delivers really solid movie. By doing basic things very well, 3:10 to Yuma sets itself apart from all the generic and formulaic movies that display all the typical story tropes by doing all of them very well. This story features a simple through-line: get Ben Wade onto the 3:10 train to Yuma to bring him to justice and allow Dan Evans to preserve his farm. The characters are not extreme in any way, but they are treated with a lot of respect by the writer and that makes them better than most. Plus they get all get really good performances, which never hurts.
Although Ben Wade is definitely the antagonist and Dan Evans is definitely the protagonist, the movie feels a lot like a two-hander. Typically movies are about the defining time of a person's life in which they change forever, and that is definitely the case for Dan, but not for Ben. Bringing Ben to justice is the one thing that Dan has ever done that he can feel proud of and Ben almost becomes his ally in this, whether he is actually helping Dan reach his goal or resisting him. In fact, Dan needs the task of getting Ben to the train station to be difficult, because if it is not difficult, then it gives Dan no chance to prove himself. This is actually sort of true of all movies, or at least many, but it is more pronounced here. The events of the movie are not exactly a defining point in Ben's life, but more of a point where everything he has done to that point comes to a head and he is sort of okay with the fact that his life of crime is probably over. He doesn't want to go to prison, but he doesn't seem to really want his band to rescue him that much either. What I loved about his character was the way that he was always able to sort of be in control of the situation and give the sense that "I'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me." And for better or worse, Ben lives up to this badass line better than the Watchman who actually said it.
One concept that is intrinsic to Westerns and is very on display here is frontier justice. The fact that the law has a very loose grip on the land means that justice is really in the hands of anyone who wants to enact it. Both of our main characters, and even Dan's son William to an extent, use this to their advantage. Ben and his gang obviously use the loose justice system to run rampant and commit crimes. Dan uses it as a way of doing something noble that matters, as does William. And throughout the movie, there are hints that the justice that Ben is being brought to is not frontier justice in which someone actually pays for his crimes. The railroad companies and such that Ben has robbed from are just removing a threat to their business. I only mention this because I think it adds to the characters, particularly Ben, and makes them easier to root for because they are sort of rebelling against the system in some ways.
I would definitely recommend watching this because it's just an all-around solid movie. A lot of times, people say that aspiring screenwriters should study Tarantino movies or Wes Anderson movies or other movies that do unconventional or strikingly different things to help them find their voice or maybe show them how to break the "rules". But I really think this is a better movie to study as a writer: A movie that does nothing fancy but does everything right. I think every writer has a simple story like this in them and if they care enough about it, they can make it as good as this movie is. Overall Rating: 8.1/10.