A great western spoiled.

Rating: 8/10 (24 September 2007)

All of the ingredients of a great western - stagecoach hold-up, townsmen forming a posse, wonderful horsemanship, rugged scenery, and an Indian "attack". I deplored the ending, and the incomprehensible turn-about of the villain (Russell Crowe). I immediately got the 1957 original with Glen Ford as the villain. A great actor, but he appears too clean-cut in the role, while Russell Crowe appears much more ominous though cultured, a fine sketch artist and bible scholar.
There were some definite improvements over the 1957 version. SPOILERS to follow - please see the movie first before reading these comments.
The film (both versions) opens with a stagecoach hold-up. The stagecoach driver seizes a gang member and holds a gun to his head, telling the robbers to ride off or else. Ben Wade (leader of the gang - Glenn Ford/Russell Crowe) instantly shoots his own man through the head and then shoots the stagecoach driver.
Wade is later captured and a half dozen men deputized to take him to the nearest railroad town where the 3:10 will take him to the penitentiary at Yuma. Rancher van Heflin/Christian Bale, desperate for money to save his ranch, agrees to join the men for a fee of $200 offered by the owner of the stagecoach line.
Rancher van Heflin's wife comes roaring into town on a horse and gig to plead with him to give up his suicidal mission. In the 2007 film, this is much improved upon. Crowe's 14 year old son (Logan Lerman) pleads to accompany the men taking Crowe to the town where the 3:10 train will bring him to the penitentiary, saying, "I can ride better and shoot better than any of the men." Of course his father (Christian Bale)refuses. On one of the several occasions where Crowe bests his escorts, he has seized a shotgun holding it on the men who would take him to prison. Unbeknownst to his dad and the others, Logan (the 14 year old)had been trailing silently all along and steps up behind Rusell Crowe holding a pistol,to his head, saving the day and the lives of his Dad and the other men. A fine touch, far better than the wife coming to town in the 1957 version.
Taking a shortcut, the men choose to ride through Indian territory, although advised strongly against it. Sure enough, they are attacked in the night by Apaches. Russell Crowe, having obtained a gun, crawls out into the darkness and dispatches the Indians, ALL THREE OF THEM (?!) In all of the western movies of the past, the Indians attack in hordes. Crowe later explains he did this to save his own skin.
Encountering railroad tracks being laid by Chinese coolies, Wade is nearly shot by the gang boss who recognizes him as the killer of his brother in an earlier robbery. Managing to escape, Christian Bale and Russell Crowe in a well timed feat of horsemanship and shooting toss a bundle of dynamite into the tunnel, setting off an explosion by accurate marksmanship ending the pursuit.
Ben Wade's gang are relentlessly following the posse to prevent them from putting him on the train, and the inevitable shoot-out follows in the town. Just as in High Noon, the townspeople at the last minute abandon the escort refusing to risk their lives. When the sheriff steps out and lays down his guns on the ground, holds up his hands in the air, he is ruthlessly shot down by Wade's second-in-command, a vicious killer wearing an old Confederate Civil War tunic.
Crowe, having failed to buy his freedom from rancher Bale, runs along with him to the train. Just as his gang is about to free him at the very train tracks, he turns and shoots each of them dead. Not surprising since he readily killed one of his own men at the beginning of the movies. (So why were they all so dedicated to saving him???) And then, Ben Wade and the rancher (van Heflin in 1957) run for and hop on the train which has started moving and picking up speed. The rancher, puzzled as to why he so willingly ran along and hopped on the train, asks Wade to explain. Wade simple says, "I've escaped from the Yuma penitentiary twice before." As they stand in the cattle car, van Heflin's wife (1957) arrives on the scene and smiles in relief that he is alive, that he has made it and that he will collect on the promised $200. At that climactic moment, the rancher, about to lose his ranch and cattle due to a prolonged drought, the heavens open up and heavy rains begin, van Heflin waves to his wife as they break out in smiles, as does the audience.
In the 2007 version, the rancher (Christian Bale) is shot to death in the rail yard. What a depressing ending to (until then) a terrific western movie.