Don't Miss This Train!

Rating: 9/10 (1 March 2020)

3:10 to Yuma is an example of a good film (the 1957 version) being remade into an even more memorable one. Directed by the ever consistent James Mangold, it is a suspenseful, beautifully paced western, with a great cast creating many memorable characters. The changes made to the original film, based on an Elmore Leonard short story, only enhance the storyline and give it greater relevance in the 21st century.
Russell Crowe is outstanding as the highly intelligent, but deadly, outlaw gang leader Ben Wade imbuing him with a degree of sympathy viewers can't ignore. Christian Bale never overplays his up against it, Civil War veteran Dan Evans and he especially shines in his third act interplaying with Crowe, where his character's courage and quiet dignity are fully revealed. But it's not just the leads that stand out. Ben Foster's creates an arresting psychopathic, but loyal, Charlie Prince, who's Wade's second in command. And it's a pleasure to see Peter Fonda filling a significant supporting role, as Byron McElroy, an elderly Pinkerton agent hired by the Railroad company to hunt Wade and Alan Tudyk turning up, as a dubiously qualified medico, with an adventurous streak.
In a storyline that doesn't feature a huge number of female characters, Gretchen Mol's scenes as Dan's wife, Alice, are both realistic and affecting and I loved her dinner interlude with Ben Wade, as he attempts to both charm her, whilst hopefully making preparations, for a possible future escape. Logan Lerman does just about the impossible, in what is a far more beefed up role from the original film. He turns Dan's (at first) brattish, impressionable, teenage son William, into a young man who we see has come of age by the film's exciting climax, which again has been very smartly tweaked, from the earlier version.
The action scenes are really well choreographed and the cinematography from Greek professional, Phedon Papamichael, is never less than impressive. By story's end, it's abundantly clear that James Mangold's exceedingly well-made remake isn't as simply expressed as its predecessor, but more layered with elements of morality to consider for our modern sensibilities.
Catch the 3:10 before it leaves the station.