Absurd plot. Big stars and nice photography

Rating: 2/10 (23 August 2018)

All we can say is that this movie shows some nice landscape photography and that the cast is good.
But the plot is a disaster. It starts with a stagecoach, equipped with a gatling gun, being held up by some outlaws. One of the outlaws is such a sharpshooter that he can shoot the drivers of the moving coach from half a kilometre away. Then Russell Crowe, the chief outlaw shoots a Pinkerton man in the belly, while saying he has no intention of killing him. He then shoots one of his own men for being careless.
Christian Bale, a troubled farmer and civil war veteran shows up with his sons. The outlaws don't even think of shooting these witnesses but just borrow their horses.
The Russell Crowe, for some reason goes to town and has a chat with the farmer. He pays him for the inconvenience and for the cattle that somehow died. The Pinkerton man with the bullet in his guts is operated on, 19th century style, with no anaesthesia whatever. He doesn't mind, because it "wasn't the first time he got shot". Although the doctor says he lost a lit of blood (yes, he got shot in the guts and was carried for hours, bleeding), he gets on his horse to catch the bad guy right away. Blood loss is exaggerated. The Jehovah's witnesses will confirm that.
Instead of running away, like outlaws do, Russell Crowe has a chat with the barmaid, long enough for the sheriff to catch him.
The farmer is then promised $200 to help bring the outlaw to justice.
Why don't they shoot or hang him on the spot? He is a sadistic psychopath, his gang already did 22 hold ups and killed countless people in the process. Some guy actually proposes killing him there and then. But it turns out that the townspeople are afraid of the gang.
To prove this, the second in command of the outlaws threatens that the town is going to "burn", and to make himself clear, he shoots a few innocent citizens.
Why don't they free him at the same time?
Then they send a decoy stagecoach off, carrying a guy disguised as Russell Crowe (they change hats).
The outlaw gang is not fooled so easily. Outlaw enjoys a cozy dinner at the farmers home. He is the perfect guest, saying grace and chatting about the civil war. They even let this murderer alone for a chat with farmer's wife. Farmer's wife, notwithstanding the hardships of trying to make a living and raising a family in the Arizona desert, looks like a model.
Nobody notices him smuggling a fork in his shirt.
At night, outlaw sticks said fork in one of his captors throat, killing him.
No need to tie him up any better of course. He then overpowers the healed Pinkerton man, and disarms the whole posse,with his handcuffs still on. He throws Pinkerton in a ravine. The farmer's son arrives to save the day.
It appears that the farmer lost his leg in the civil war but he doesn't even limp. With one he runs, jumps and rides.
The posse generously forgives outlaw for killing two of their men and head into Indian territory. The entrance is marked by 2 dead bodies.
At night, they set up camp and are attacked by the Indians. The Indians somehow miss their target. Russell Crowe, still handcuffed, crawls up behind the Indians and cuts their throats.
Then Russell Crowe escapes again, with the posses horses, and arrives at a railroad construction camp. Most workers are Chinese, wearing Chinese hats.
When he tries to convince a female Chinese blacksmith to undo his handcuffs, he is caught by the railroad men.
The posse arrives at the camp and find the outlaw being tortured (with electricity, these are state of the art thugs). They have to keep a straight face, claiming that the man that walked in the camp with their horses is actually supposed to be their prisoner. And that he should not be tortured. One of the railroad men's brother was killed by outlaw, so he prefers to kill him himself.
The clumsy posse then beats the whole railroad gang by beating a shovel and off they go again, with outlaw.
Eventually they arrive at the town where the train stops (3:10 to Yuma). Instead of keeping him at the station to wait for the train, they prefer to rent the bridal suite (I'm not making this up) in the local hotel. There they get help from the local marshall and his deputies.
In the meantime, the outlaw's cronies also arrive. They promise $200 to every citizen that kills of the marshall's men and free outlaw. The cityfolk happily comply.
The marshall turns out not to be so though after all, and they decide to surrender at once.
Outlaw is allowed to appear at the window to inform his gang about the escape plans.
The marshall and his men come out to surrender and get killed at once by the outlaws.
Then the farmers decide to take outlaw to the train. He has to run a gauntlet through town, with citizens and outlaws shooting at them. Farmer has one leg, but has no trouble running and jumping from roof to roof with his prisoner, shooting his assailants left and right. The second-in-command-outlaw is afraid the townsfolk might accidentally shoot his boss, so he shoots a few of them to make his point.
For some reason, outlaw follows the farmer all the way to the train station. The train is late.
Then for some reason, outlaw decides he prefers to take the train, to his trail and inevitable hanging, rather than running away to his gang.
When his second in command outlaw shoots farmer, outlaws kills him and his whole own gang. He then gets into the train and lets himselfes locked in a cage.
I gather that it is a movie, and that one can't expect the plot to be flawless (if all characters were doted with logic, the movie would be 2 hours shorter), but this....
Russell Crowe is a good actor, but not for the role of a remorseless killer.