James Mangold's "3:10 to Yuma" restores the wounded heart of the Western movies and brought back the good old memories of it. The Western in its glory days most likely about humanist values penetrating the lawless anarchy of the frontier. It still follows that tradition in films like other Western movies that comes out but the audience's appetite for morality plays and Westerns seems to be fading. In the movie, quality of the acting and the thought behind the film make it seem like a giving it a new flavor and taste of modern Western movie , even though it's a remake of a good movie 50 years old(which was adapted from an Elmore Leonard short story).It's the Old West as we know it: stagecoaches, horses, gunfights, ramshackle towns and ofcourse some dangerous bad guys and gangsters. Director James Mangold (Walk the Line) has assembled a respectable cast, with Christian Bale playing opposite Russell Crowe and recognizable names like Peter Fonda, Ben Foster, and Gretchen Mol in supporting roles. It wouldn't be fair to claim that this is the best Western film that i've ever watchrf but surely it's worth the investing your time and money to see this movie.
In Arizona in the late 1800, a man named Dan Evans (Christian Bale), who was a sharpshooter but lost a leg in the Civil War who gets no respect from anyone in his life, has come to the Arizona territory to try his luck at ranching. It's going badly, made worse by a neighboring bully who wants to force him off his land, his cattle are dying because of drought, his mortgage holder is trying to force him off the land, his wife, Alice (Gretchen Mol), is regretful, and Will, his 14-year-old son considers him as weak as green tea. Poor Dan, all the odds seems pressuring him a lot.
Outlaw legend Ben Wade (Crowe), a man who would as soon kill you as look at you, is, by contrast, at the top of his game. He robs stagecoaches at will, his word is law as far as his vicious gang of miscreants is concerned and plague the whole Southern Railroad in Arizona. When Ben was caught by the government, a series of developments that seem almost dictated by fate, Dan Evans, in order for him survive his struggling drought-plagued ranch, he risk his life as a volunteer and finds himself as part of group of people sworn in to escort Wade, captured and handcuffed, to the nearby town of Contention, where the 3:10 p.m. train has a cell in its mail car that will transport Wade to the prison in Yuma and a certain death sentence. On the trail, Evans and Wade, each from very different worlds, begin to earn each other's respect. But with Wade's outfit on their trail – and dangerous at every turn – the mission soon becomes violent, impossible journey toward each man's destiny.
These general outlines also describe the 1957 version of "3:10 to Yuma," directed by Delmer Daves, starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin in the roles of the rancher and the outlaw. But for me, Mangold's version is better still than the 1957 original, because it has better actors with more thought behind their dialogue. The theme and the message in the film is more modern and mature compare to the original. I will give the credit to Mangold's unique approach in the movie.
The 30-minute finale, which includes a tense stand-off with Ben's gang, was masterfully executed. It's perfectly paced, suspenseful, and ends in a way that's both appropriate and satisfying. Watching a movie like this, I can't help but wish that the Western would come back into favor again. Finally, a tip for all who wants to see the movie, attend well to Ben Wade's last words in this movie, and who he says them to, and why.
