3:10 to Yuma movie review

Here's what you need to know; Dan Evans and his family are feeling the hurt after a long drought has left them desperate for money, a solution arises for Dan when Ben Wade, the villainous leader of a gang of outlaws, is captured, and help is needed escorting him to the 3:10 train to Yuma prison, all the while Wade's gang are hot on their tail. But is Ben Wade as evil as the legends claim?

Admittedly there are a few films I've seen that I can say I love, when it comes to these movies sometimes I can still have a reasonably easy time being critical of flaws, but then there are other films where flaws are much harder to find, the 2007 remake of 3:10 to Yuma is, at least for me, one of these movies. Let's begin with what I like about this film, something I like is the characters, specifically the main 2; Dan Evans played by Christian Bale and Ben Wade played by Russell Crowe. Christian Bale is a good actor, and he does a good job in the role of the one legged civil war veteran, Dan is a character who is struggling to keep his family fed, and has to deal with the railroad relentlessly trying to bully him off his land. His motives are understandable and relatable, and he has a very interesting similarity with Ben Wade, who is frankly the best thing in this film by a mile. While Glenn Ford's Wade in the original was all charm, Russell Crowe's Wade is still charming, yet much more human, I'll try to avoid spoilers, but this film explores both Dan and Wade's pasts in a way I don't remember the 1957 version doing. In this film Wade is also much more cruel, he stabs a guy in the neck with a fork for god's sake, but this doesn't detract from Crowe's very human Wade, you get the sense that he is so cruel only because he needs to to stay alive. What connects these 2 characters is a very subtle theme of the film, religion. Dan and Wade have both lost their faith in God, my beliefs aside, I find this to be really interesting, and it really grounds both the characters and the film. Supporting characters are as usual a mixed bag, while I like the crew that accompanies Dan and Wade, there are some that are better than others, and they don't really stand out from other westerns; for example the tough Pinkerton who doesn't talk much, and the rich business man with the moustache. William, Dan's son is an interesting character though, he has an admiration for Ben Wade that is at times entertaining to watch. Wade's gang is largely unremarkable too, except for Charlie Prince, played by Ben Foster, who is awesome in my opinion, he serves as the film's main antagonist, is loyal to the death, he's a badass gunslinger, and he is insane, he will get under your skin a few times in this film.

3:10 to Yuma has some cool moments, there is an awesome action scene right at the beginning of the film with a gatling gun, and a shootout which serves as the finale of the film. But this isn't a straight up action film, aside from the gatling gun scene and the end shootout this film only has a couple of notably actiony scenes, which are part of my main criticism, but more on that later. What is there between the 2 big action scenes is serviceable, but it's not the point, the point is the characters, and there again there are a few great scenes, most of which are spearheaded by Ben Wade, these are scenes where really all that happens is people talking, but it works, and it is never boring. And now for my criticism, as I said there are 2 big actions scenes, one at the beginning and one at the end, and in between there are a few pepperings of action, mainly a brief shootout with Indians and a brief chase through a railway site that happen nearly back to back. These scenes do a good job of keeping the film moving, and sufficiently stop the majority of the film from being all dialogue. While there isn't anything wrong with these scenes, they do feel a tiny bit like filler, because that's really what they are, what with the compulsory Indians and the Coolies working on the railroad. I stress, these scenes don't bring the movie down, they just seem like filler content, and don't really add anything to the film. A final thing I actually like about 3:10 to Yuma is it's ending, no spoilers here, but the film did not end the way I thought it would, and the ending itself is somewhat interpretive, which I personally like, don't worry, it's not the Inception ending, it's just open ended enough to provide closure while also leaving the aftermath of the film's events nebulous.

While some things that happen throughout the film feel too much like filler, and the roster of support characters is a mixed bag, this film has 1 good main character and 1 brilliant main character,  a few memorable support characters, mainly Charlie Prince, 2 awesome actions scenes and a couple serviceable ones thrown in as extra, and a couple of subtle things like the 2 mains losing faith in God, probably things you'd only really see if you studied this film as closely as I did in college. But even without them this is a film I'd highly recommend, it's just a good film, and it's worth the 2 hours you'll spend watching it.