3:10 to Yuma

By Matt Holmes / September 7, 2007

You know the main reason why I like Westerns so much? Two words (and actually they kinda mean the same thing), Death and Inevitably. Here are these larger than life characters who look invincible but of course they aren't. Far from it. Death hangs all around them, not least from the railroad which they know will end their way of life for good soon enough but also from every other damn son of a bitch around them. They are all killers, all of them, even the good guys. Actually there are no good guys, just bad men and coward. Heroes get shot and die. The cowards are probably the smart one's. For all of them the 3:10 to Yuma train is approaching. That's what this movie is clearly about, paying your debts and that awful feeling of inevitably that hangs over every task we do each day. The kind when you know you aren't going to pass that test you have to sit for that day or the knowing that the job interview your attending won't turn out fruitful. The inevitably of that Sunday lazy morning feeling when you can't be bothered to do anything or that Christmas feeling, where you know your going to have to hear those awful festive songs on the T.V. and radio once again. The first A-List Western for an awful long time, James Mangold's awesome 3:10 to Yuma, finally understands this and gets the genre right after years of misfires and what I like to call 'non-Westerns'. Westerns that aren't really Westerns like the dramatic-Western hybrid like Brokeback Mountain and The Missing. Westerns that look nice and are beautifully shot but haven't quite got the interesting and gritty old school characters that use to fill the Ford and Leone Westerns like The Propostion (although I didn't mind that movie so much, it was pretty good in truth) and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. 3:10 to Yuma goes back to the gritty, dark, rugged and often mean Western that blends the idea of the developing Old West and a new frantic style of film-making better than any movie in the genre I've ever seen. You really have to wonder why the Western has been missing for so long when you come across a movie as good as this. A one that is exciting, thrilling and filled with some truly awesome shoot-out's. The movie just like the Glen Ford and Van Heflin original follows a ruthless outlaw by the name of Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) who seemingly tired of the outlaw way of life, lackadaisically finds himself captured by the local authorities he usually eats up for breakfast. Although of course they are tempted to kill Wade straight away for his many killings and other heinous acts (including one in the movie's opening sequence, where I swear Crowe and the landscape blended into one glorious moment of cinema), they decided to give him up to higher officials and several volunteers offer to escort Wade to the 3:10 to Yuma train which will take him to prison. One of the men is Christian Bale's Dan Evans, a farmer whose whole family has lost their faith in him and he can never repay the dept he owes men with more power than he. Taking Wade to prison will see his debts wiped clean. Of course as simple a task as that sounds, it won't really be that easy as his outlaw gang including his right-hand man Charlie Prince (superbly played by Ben Foster... Yes really that guy from X-Men 3) will maim and kill to retrieve Wade back. Despite the movie's incredible shoot-out sequences and frantic storytelling, the movie often does feel a little like a Russell Crowe vanity project. A kind of Jack Nicholson performance where he steals every scene he is in with a jokey and smile at the camera attitude and Mangold really doesn't shy away from putting Crowe's face on camera but damn, Russell Crowe is the best actor of his generation. He knows how to play the audience every step of the way and his on-screen persona helps the idea of the ruthless Ben Wade. He is superb here and the best Western villain I've seen in many years despite maybe over-shawdowing Christian Bale and the rest of the film a tad. Lest we not forget too, Peter Fonda puts in fine work as a ruthless bounty hunter, the best thing he's done for a long time now. Marco Belmtrami's score is quite incredible actually and by the movie's finale I was pretty much ready to start jumping around at how good this movie was. You know, my girlfriend can always tell how could I think a movie is by how much I fidget, shuffle around and drink water. Well I never moved throughout this movie, not even to drink. I was still the whole time, though by eyes were racing with the images I saw on screen. I'm such a Western sucker... as soon as the opening of the film began and there's those gang of horse riding outlaws... I knew I would love this movie. Oh, and another reason I love the Western.. complexity and morality. Well there's a hell of a lot to chew on here and I'm not prepared to spoil any of it for you. THIS MOVIE IS UNMISSABLE.

rating: 4.5

The score is great. It's well shot. It's superbly acted. It's thrilling. It's exciting. It's mean. It's gritty. It's the best Western since Unforgiven and the best old school Western since the 70's and The Outlaw Josey Wales. If this doesn't do it, you really have to wonder what Western will ever get asses back in seats.