An entertaining, action-packed Western

Rating: 9/10 (7 November 2010)

The Western has a genre that has been revived in recent years, with many releases getting critical success. We have seen many films like the Assassination of Jesse James, Open Range and Seraphim Falls, with even international efforts making the scene, like The Proposition and The Good, the Bad and the Weird. After making the award winning Walk the Line, director James Mangold comes up with an entertaining follow-up.
Set in the late 19th century Dan Evans (Christian Bale) is a Civil War veteran and an impoverished ranch owner in Arizona. He owns larges debts to a rival. Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) is a ruthless outlaw leading a violence group of men and notorious in the area. After a successful ambush, Wade is captured by the local authorities and Dan offers to take the criminal to train to Yuma prison for $200, showing his son William (Logan Lerman) that he can provide for his family. From Bisbee Dan and a team of men including a Pinkerton agent Byron McElroy (Peter Fonda), a doctor (Alan Tudyk) and coach owner Grayson Butterfield (Dallas Roberts) to take the man, but they are followed by Wade's gang led by his loyal right-hand man Charlie Prince (Ben Foster).
Mangold set about using a Saving Private Ryan style of realism. The set designs and costumes were wonderful and the little details reminded me of the HBO series Deadwood. The violence is brought to a realist level, that being shot is nasty and not a clear death. But Mangold and the screenwriters tell a more traditional story, a tale of adventure and redemption in a violence and lawless world. Mangold and the writers bring in more modern ideas and themes to give the story a little more meat, with themes about Dan trying to be a good father and providing for his family seeing that his oldest son having lost faith and making the villains more three dimensional characters, with Wade trying to justify his actions, showing his rivalry with Byron and that he has sympathies for Apache people (though I doubt an outlaw would have been that sympathetic to native Americans).
Mangold also directs some excellent action sequences, particular an ambush in the beginning of the film and the final sequence, with blood and bullets flying over the place and are perfected edited. Mangold shows that people want to see the action, avoiding too many quick cuts and keeps the camera steady and still. Mangold shoots with traditional filming techniques and camera but uses modern lighting to make the film look more fresh. Mangold keeps a dark brooding tone throughout, particularly the night and does not hold back. He shows that the modern Western genre can be both meaning and action packed, not just the preserve of art-house crowd.
There is a great cast in this film, and Crowe and Bale are two of Hollywood most talented, if troubled stars at the moment. Both worked well together and have excellent screen chemistry as two different men. Crowe was the slighter stronger performer, but its only a manner of splitting hairs. Lerman shows that he is a promising young actor and why he was giving the lead role in Percy Jackson and why he was a strong candidate to play Spider-man. Tudyk and Roberts were very similar to characters in Deadwood, particular Doc Cochran and Whitney Ellsworth. But the most surprising performer was Ben Foster: his career has been unimpressive with roles in X-Men: The Last Stand (which was no more then a glorified cameo) and 30 Days of Night. In 3:10 to Yuma his role was engaging as the main villain, a ruthless, violence man who is young and does not have any boundaries which come with age. He is a man who looks up to Wade as a father figure/older brother (a long running theme in the film) and looks older with a bread.
Whilst watching a very entertaining film, I did think I would like to see what Steven Spielberg and Sir Ridley Scott could do with a Western.