3:10 to Yuma

Review By: Michael Dance
MichaelMDance@gmail.com

The Western has the strangest history of any Hollywood genre. Back in the 1940s and 50s, when they were still being churned out on a regular basis, the plots were morally simplistic, which allowed the gunplay to be casual: it was okay to shoot the bad guys, because they were bad guys. In the '60s, a new subgenre arose, that which dealt with the dying, sad days of the Wild West: The Wild Bunch looked for one last big score, while Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid simply ran away. Into the '70s and beyond, the common assumption became that Westerns didn't make money anymore, but the real nail in their coffin may have been 1992's Unforgiven. Clint Eastwood's brilliant film deconstructed the morals of violence and gunplay by giving us a bad guy whose goal is to build a house so he can watch the sunset, and a good guy who in this film's climax shoots down a half-dozen innocent civilians. After that, how could anyone make a Western with a casual shootout again?

3:10 to Yuma is able to overcome that problem by addressing its main characters' moralities just as carefully. We are presented with Ben Wade, a smart and charming outlaw played by Russell Crowe, and Dan Evans (Christian Bale), a rancher who's about to lose his land. After a chance encounter with each other, fate conspires to intertwine their paths again: to make some money and maybe earn back the respect of his family, Dan volunteers himself to be part of a posse that transports the captured Wade to the town of Contention, where he'll be put on the 3:10 prison train bound for Yuma, and, eventually, the noose.

And oddly enough, this actually does feel like fate -- not the orchestrated design of a screenplay. 3:10 to Yuma is an unapologetic Western with great sets and great music that inspires a real sense of authenticity. That at its center, it is a thoroughly convincing drama with dynamite leads and a strong supporting cast, solidifies it as a top-notch film of any year or any genre. And in case I scared you with all of my ostentatious talk about the deconstruction of morality, etc., rest assured that there is a lot of action. Really good action.

There are some themes that just always appeal to you, and "unspoken mutual respect between two opposite men" is near the top of my list. That's what 3:10 to Yuma is all about. Ben is a coldhearted and calculating killer, yes, but he takes a liking to Dan, and asks him, with genuine wonder, what he's doing abandoning his family to go on such a dangerous mission. And what is Dan doing? Dan isn't even sure himself, but even as his resolve to bring Ben to justice strengthens, he begins to see Ben for what he really ...