Ryan McNeil
We’re in the middle of some strange days at the box office. If you look at the biggest moneymakers for this past weekend, you have five movies that are getting a lot of pretty bad reviews (judging by the paltry sums they are taking in – audiences agree). Most of the best movies get a staggered release this time of year, so even ifaudiences wanted to see the best movies out there, they are a bit harder to find. But over the last month, one film has stuck around, and after having seen it, I can tell you it has stuck for good reason. 3:10 TO YUMA is one surprisingly good movie.
The movie opens with a daring heist of an armed stagecoach by notorious outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) and his crew. The attack is witnessed by rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale) and his two sons. The Wade Gang makes their way to the town of Bisbee, where Wade gets captured by the town sheriff thanks to a small measure of distraction by Evans. He’s taken into the custody by a motley crew that includes; the only guard not killed in the heist (Peter Fonda), a railroad representative (Dallas Roberts), and the town doctor (Alan Tudyk). Evans is offered $200 to join, with the intention of taking Wade to a town called Contention, and putting him on a train to Yuma Prison, where he’ll be tried and hanged. Three guesses what time the train is due to arrive. The journey is a three day ride. With Wade’s gang in pursuit, and Wade himself a constant threat, making that train will take more than just a little good luck.
Most of the movie consists of Christian Bale and Russell Crowe playing off each other. As Evans, Bale has a sad determination. He’s debt-ridden, crippled, and can’t seem to catch a break. The fact that his wife and children all seem to be undermining his authority is clearly weighing on him. The question is though – is Evans undertaking this task for the money, or does he feel some sense of duty? Crowe, on the other hand, plays a charismatic anti-hero. Wade is the type of man who will get you to talk to him about seemingly nothing, and only after it’s too late do people realize they’re telling their prisoner about their insecurities and fears. Once they realize it, the glint in Crowe’s eye surely signals them that he’s not listening to them just to chit-chat. Wade is a sophisticated villain – the sort of man Mick Jagger had in mind when he sang “Please allow me to introduce myself / I’m a man of wealth and taste…”
3:10 TO YUMA tries to re-establish the notion of honour amoung thieves. What makes Ben Wade special, is the fact that while he’s a violent man – the sort of man who will kill his own man in a hostage situation -he isn’t a merciless man. He’s in it for his own gain, but he won’t punish bystanders just because they are there. After the stagecoach robbery, when he discovers that Evans and his sons have witnessed the whole ordeal, he is fair in his reaction. He doesn’t kill them, doesn’t even harm them. He does take their horses, but ties the horses off a few miles up the road. Establishing this in Wade’s character is no accident, because as the posse gets closer to getting him on that 3:10 train, Wade stays true to himself. At first his choices in the movie’s final act had me scratching my head, but when I thought about those early actions, I realized that it was in his nature all along.
The movie is very well paced, much of which I’d have to attribute to the writing. The script, by Hallsted Welles and Michael Brandt is adapted from a short story by Elmore Leonard. Leonard is one of the best in the game at writing great dialogue, and the first time in a long time that his western material has been adapted for the big screen. The dialogue isn’t quite as snappy as Leonard’s other stories like OUT OF SIGHT or GET SHORTY, but you have to love lines like “Even bad men love their mammas”.
This is a very good, and very accessible western. The story isn’t a slow simmer like THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES, or UNFORGIVEN, and as such will likely appeal to a broader audience. As award season goes on, and theatres fill with more and more intellectual dramas, movies like 3:10 TO YUMA have a very important place. They are proof that intelligent action movies are possible, and that just because a movie has chase scenes and gunfights doesn’t mean it can’t have some brains too.