A great movie, even for western "haters"

Rating: 8/10 (21 October 2012)

I hate westerns, but this movie got me involved from the very beginning. It's amazing the way it catches you. This movie it's great, because is not a typical type of western, with all the clichés and obvious turns, is because some modern themes were included indirectly into the old west also by the camera angles and shots you have the feeling of being with the characters, not to mention the wonderful performance by those amazing actors that leave you speechless until the very end.
Starts with the mood of the west, you see this poor place with so little population in a desert- like ambient. By the close- ups in the characters natural facial expressions with no talk actually it makes your mind construct that emotion transmitted so that you may have some empathy with the characters. Example, in the scene that we see Dan Evans with his son William in the hotel room, telling his son that he will see that his father will be the only man that takes Ben Wade to the train when nobody could, in other words, that his father will become a hero. In this particular scene we can also see Ben Wade sitting in the background, the camera focus in his facial expressions and by his face we can clearly notice that his respect for Dan Evans grows bold because there he sees a father that wants to give his son a good example not longer a man in search for money. This one reason alone make this movie be really good, because it has the capacity of transport the feeling of the scene and characters into your own subconscious mind.
Dan Evans is a poor farmer who lost one of his feet in war, now he have a family of two boys and his wife, his economical situation is very low so that he's very near to lose his house. One day, he sees face to face Ben Wade, the most wanted criminal at the time. He volunteer to be one of the men taking Ben Wade to the train station by the time of 3:10 to Yuma which is a prison waiting to hang him, for this journey he will be paid $200, the money he needs to pay off his deeds.
As the story develops, we see the long journey and all the events they passed. His son William secretly followed them to help his dad, Ben Wade started to kill some of the men, and his most confidant fellow Charlie Prince organizes the gang to get him back. All of this plus conflicting emotions, changes of thoughts and even change of plan. They began the journey all against Ben Wade, those all want him dead at Yuma but they are also afraid of his hidden intentions through the way. There's a character approach between William Evans and Ben Wade, in some scenes we can see how these characters get along with each other, not to mention that William was the only one to not fear Ben Wade, he even thought that Ben wasn't such a bad and cruel person like he portrayed, and have the guts to tell it to Ben. We can see some approaches of Ben Wade and Dan Evans a example of a scene is when Ben and Dan are near the train, there is seen Dan telling to Ben why he is not stubborn, and when they finished the small talk they smiled to each other, as if each other understood the point. The scene when he proposed Dan $1,000 in cash for let him escape, Dan refused, and there we see how Ben realizes that Evans is not like everyone else. So that in the last scene, when he saw Dan Evans dead, he got out his gun and killed all his gang, when he was about to kill Charlie Prince, his most intimate fellow, he looked him into the eyes and we see Charlie's expression as a "I came here to get you back, I stayed loyal, why you do this to me", and then we see Ben Wade's expression as a "There was no need to kill this man, you deeply disappointed me", in my opinion, a great scene that shows a fantastic example of how to let people understand without any words.
3:10 to Yuma is a movie based on Elmore Leonard's story and is better, it even explains a lot more from the characters. It's a western composed by action, crime and drama with good dialog lines, for example when Dan Evans tells his wife "If I don't go, we gotta pack up and leave. Now I'm tired, Alice. I'm tired of watching my boys go hungry. I'm tired of the way they look at me, I'm tired of the way that you don't". This movie is worth to watch, there we see the sacrifices a person is willing to do to obtain their goals, also the economic crisis which we all live day by day, there's also the message of a father showing his boy an example of how to be a great man, how the raising of a kid can affect in his adulthood. It leaves an open ending, in which you can think that Ben Wade will escape again to keep being a criminal, or to escape and live a different life (because he killed all his gang like if he don't want to know anything else from them). Very enjoyable movie, suspense filled with action. I highly recommend this movie, even if you hate western, when you watch this film it will blow your mind away and probably will be the only western film that you can call your favorites of all times, like me, or to open your mind to a different movie genre, the westerns, and watch more films to enhance or enrich your point of view and enjoy your entertainment interest.