Hollywood has a love/hate relationship with Westerns. They aren’t exactly guaranteed box office gold. But when they’re done well, Westerns can transcend ordinary cinema and speak more about the human condition than other film genres.
In 1957 Halsted Welles adapted a short story by Elmore Leonard about a lone marshal facing the numerous guns of his prisoner’s gang as he attempts to bring the murder to justice into a film starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin. Director James Mangold has revisited the story, added a few new touches and 3:10 to Yuma opens wide on Friday September 7.
Rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale) is facing hard times. A lasting drought has ravaged his land, his cattle and put him in dutch with the local loan shark. Fate has blown legendary bad man Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) and his gang into town and into Dan’s life. When Wade is captured the call goes out for men (well paid of course) to accompany Wade to the town of Contention and to the train bound for the prison at Yuma. Evans finds himself at odds with his conscious and his gut. And with Wade’s fiercely loyal lieutenant Charlie Prince (Ben Foster) in hot in pursuit there isn’t much room to stop and consider all that’s right and wrong with the situation. Dan just wants to get Wade to the station and back home alive.
Mangold has stripped away any nostalgia and romance about the old west for this film. The focus is instead, as it was in the 1957 version; on the relationships between characters: father and son, captive and his captors, husband and wife, a leader and his followers. But being visually and thematically simplistic does not mean it’s uninteresting. The towns and interiors are practical, as that world would have been. And never fear there is still plenty of shoot ‘em up, horses running at break-neck speed through the gorgeous rough country of the American South West action for those looking for that.
There’s just a hair’s breath of difference between Wade and Evans and it has nothing to do with morality. It is due to some fine writing and fine acting that the ambiguities of the two men are revealed so well. Crowe and Bale are on point in this movie. Crowe gives the disarmingly charming Wade a sinister edge that bubbles just below the surface. Bale’s Evans is about as desperate a man as you’ll ever meet. But he never really shows himself fully, not until he’s made this journey and has come to terms with the man he is. As attention grabbing as both performances are, both men are respectful of their fellow actors and their scenes together are riveting. In lesser hands one actor could have very easily over-powered the other and spoiled the wonderful give and take between the characters.
The rest of the ensemble is fantastic too. Peter Fonda as the grisly Pinkerton man McElroy shows these youngsters how to chew some scenery. Not to be outdone is Ben Foster, the steely Charlie. There is a palpable feeling of admiration for Wade that just rolls off Charlie. He continuously calls him “Ben Wade” when addressing others about his boss, like a mantra. (It reminded me of the episode of “Extras” that Orlando Bloom guest starred on where he only called his pirates co-star by his first and last name, a sign of respect and fear.) Gretchen Mol, one of the films only two females is at once delicate and determined as the rancher’s wife. Another stand out performance is Logan Leman as the oldest Evan’s son. The role called for a boy on the brink of manhood struggling to decide which path to follow, with two opposing father figures as his guides and Leman has the presence and intelligence to pull it off.
Having seen the 1957 version recently I was glad the filmmakers this time around forgo the use of the original theme song sung by Frankie Laine and went instead with a more spaghetti western sounding soundtrack by Marco Beltrami.
To say any more will sound like gushing. So simply put: 3:10 to Yuma is a terrific film, impeccably acted and directed. Go see it.
3:10 to Yuma
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