| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | 3:10 TO YUMA (2007) |
| Director | James Mangold |
| Writer | Halsted Welles, Michael Brandt, Derek Haas |
| Lead Actor | Russell Crowe |
| Cast | Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Ben Foster |
| Genre | Action, Crime, Drama, Western |
| Release Date | September 7, 2007 (United States) |
| Duration | 2 hours 2 minutes |
| Budget | $55 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDB Rating | 7.6/10 |
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Positive Aspects of 3:10 TO YUMA (2007)
Following the footsteps of westerns such as “Unforgiven”, 3:10 To Yuma throws us into the lives of some morally questionable and down on their luck characters who end up finding something decent within themselves so they can stand up and be proud. Russell Crowe plays successful, ruthless, but charming robber Ben Wade, who has robbed 22 individual coaches belonging to the Pacific Railroad.
On his latest robbery, he has a chance encounter with wannabe rancher Dan Evans, played by Christian Bale. From the outset, they enter a love hate relationship, constantly at odds, yet somehow come to respect each other, which ultimately makes the film worth watching. Wade is nasty, but he’s not mean. Even when Dan takes money to escort Wade under guard to his prison bound train, the “3:10 To Yuma”, you never get the sense that Wade holds any grudges against Dan.
As the film progresses, Dan comes to rely on Wade to help him find his sense of self-respect and the respect of his son. The film has a moody, atmospheric tone as it guides you along Dan’s quest (with his posse) to take Wade to his destiny. But on their trail is Wade’s posse, led by a mean, deadly, accurate and cold-hearted bastard called Charlie Prince (played with relish by Ben Foster).
That character alone made the film worth watching! As with all westerns, you know there’s a showdown at the end but the way it all goes down is a pleasant surprise and highlights the revisionist take that the filmmakers have employed here. The West isn’t really glamorised much, and is shown for the depressed, harsh world that it probably really was. All of this put together makes for some fine drama, tense sequences and strong characterisations with Christian Bale surprisingly coming out on top over Russell Crowe, who put in a fine performance himself.
Drawbacks of 3:10 TO YUMA (2007)
Some of the character motivations, particularly towards the climax, lean strongly towards the incredible side. Russell Crowe from the outset plays a bad guy who despite having a sense of charm, does not have a strong sense of decency. Towards the end, through some ‘interesting’ dialogue, we are guided to the nation that he does have a heart inside but without the sense of build-up, or any sign before hand that it was going to happen, the whole thing comes across forced.
As a result, the ending where Crowe kills his own posse for killing Dan is not as strong as it could have been. On the flip side, Crowe is trying so hard to escape throughout the film that by the end when he is given that chance, he instead decides to help Dan gain his self-respect and the respect of his son by allowing Dan to get him on the 3:10 train to Yuma prison. Sure, he may be the bad guy with the heart but I don’t think his ‘heart’ was that big to allow that (despite the fact that he still manages to escape), especially as so much of the film concentrates on Crowe behaving in the opposite manner.
Final Verdict
Strong, atmospheric western with great performances, but something unexpected happens in a few places, especially towards the end of the film.
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