Be on Time to 3:10 to Yuma

Rating: 10/10 (17 September 2007)

The Western has been somewhat non existent in the last 5 years, with the exception of "Open Range," in 2003, and HBO's series "Deadwood," the genre has moved into extinction in movie goers' minds, as many Westerns nowadays focus on shootouts and blood and leave out the humanistic themes that the genre is built around.
These humanistic themes are exemplified through stories of men who bring anarchy to places where law and morality are hard to find on the new frontier, which give rise to bold hearted men who stand up for justice when it is no where to be found. In "3:10 to Yuma" you find such a moral story line as criminal Ben Wade comes across rancher Dan Evans.
Dan Evans is a maimed Civil War solider who fought for the North and has come to Arizona to seek refuge and peace for his family, but he has come to find nothing but pain and misery as his crops and cattle are deprived from drought, the town's businessman threaten Evans to pay off his land, and his wife and oldest son look at him like he is a coward. As Evan's barn is burnt to the ground by the businessmen and his posse, Evans decides to head into town to tell the businessman off. When he confronts him, he's told to pay up or his cattle and home will be burnt to the ground, how's that for your landlord? Now, the only way to compensate for his grievances and to pay off his debts, Evans decides to take up a job that will give him enough money to pay off the shrewd businessman. The job is to escort captured outlaw Ben Wade through perilous desert so Wade can get aboard the Yuma train and await certain execution. Wade is the leader of a band of criminals who bring down stagecoaches and rob anything on the Southern railroad. Wade is wanted for countless murders and over $400,000 stolen.
Wade is brought into Evan's home, where they wait to ride out any of Wade's posse who are certainly looking for him. There Wade brews the interest of Evan's oldest son, William, and begins to flirt with Evan's wife. William has the mentality to go out and do violence to avenge their families burnt down barn, which you can say is the Wade part of the boy. But Daniel tells his son that a man must get by with his words and not his actions.
The quiet and authoritative way of Dan Evans played expertly by Christian Bale, becomes a character that stands with Shane from "Shane," or Gary Cooper's Marshal Will Kane from "High Noon," They are regular, vulnerable men who stand up to injustice when no one else will, and are prime role models for children and young men who need to lead honest lives when there is much temptation and room to be lead astray.
What's captivating about James Mangold's crisp, authentic morality play is how it circles around the characters stories and the dichotomy between the righteous man, Evans, and the outlaw, Wade. Ben Wade is a cunning, charming, and heartless criminal who perfectly manipulates and torments his captures as they travel through deadly wilderness swarming with Apace Indians, brewing tensions, and Wade's gang of criminals on there tale. Wade however is revealed to have a humane side to him as we realize he isn't too far from Dan Evans, its just the choices the pair has made set them apart. Wade and Evans begin to bond, as the pair begin to understand one another. Many shades of Wade's character are revealed as well as he cites passages from the Bible, and takes to draw sketches in times of solitude. Russell Crowe maybe plays one of his most entertaining performances as Ben Wade in this film. Wade and Evans keep working off each other as they both force the other to question their subsequent livelihoods. Evans leads an honest and clean life, Wade points out to him, but he still suffers for it. Isn't it better to lead a life like his, Wade tries to confide to Evans. Evans though thinks different, and speaks of always doing what is hard and right when many choose the easier path. By the end of the film Evan's example rubs off on Wade, and the story calls to mind that the wildest of dogs can be tamed.
In the most stirring scene in the film, when Dan Evans is alone with outlaw Ben Wade in a hotel room, battered, tired and bruised from a hellish odyssey through sand and rolling tumbleweeds, Wade's posse circles the hotel, where Evans and Wade await certain death. All of Wade's captures leave him in fear of their own lives, but only Evans stands by Wade and promises that justice must be served and that whatever happens, he'll get him on the 3:10 to Yuma. It's almost homage to Butch and Sundance's last stand in front of the Bolivian army, but Evans sleekly leads Wade past bullets and swarming gun men, in a shoot out that will be remembered forever.
This film is surprisingly a remake but it stands alone as its own film, and also up there with my favorite Western films. Christian Bale and Russell Crowe have called for the genre's immediate revival.