Directed by:
James MangoldCinematography:
Phedon PapamichaelComposer:
Marco BeltramiCast:
Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Logan Lerman, Dallas Roberts, Ben Foster, Peter Fonda, Vinessa Shaw, Alan Tudyk, Luce Rains, Gretchen Mol, Lennie Loftin (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
In Arizona in the late 1800s, infamous outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) plagues the Southern Railroad. When Wade is captured, Civil War veteran Dan Evans (Christian Bale) - struggling to survive on his drought-plagued ranch and desperate for money - volunteers need to escort him to the "3:10 to Yuma", a train that will take the killer to trial. During the journey the two men learn grudging mutual respect, but with Wade's cold-blooded gang in hot pursuit, the mission soon becomes a violent dangerous journey where honour and loyalty clash with far-reaching consequences. (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (12)
Originally, I was going to remark, at the expense of some of the responses here, that to complain for the lack of humour in a classically cut western, is like mocking Schwarzenegger for never playing Hamlet. But I really didn't expect that, because the last 10 minutes almost gave me a pain in my cervical spine from shaking my head in disbelief. There was a lot of potential, though, with the fantastically believable realities of the Wild West, the impressive casting with all those unwashed, hirsute faces and two actors (Crowe and Bale) who have the personality and charisma to pull the film to its very… stupid conclusion. What takes place in the last quarter of an hour (the moral awakening of a hardened bastard, the joint escape on the train, etc.) shamefully dwarfs the previous 100 minutes of carefully constructed suspenseful narrative. Stupidity of the coarsest grain, when during the closing credits I was looking to see if the Monty Python gentlemen had contributed their scriptwriting bit to the mill, because in the genre classification here I am missing the word 'parody' next to the word 'Western'. Strong 3* for the first 100 minutes and let's leave it at that, I'm going to pretend I went to the toilet for a very long 15 minutes before the end...
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3:10 to Yuma starts out as a perfectly crafted Western, but it gradually starts to lose its drive in the second half and at the very end becomes a gooey, overly emotional tear-jerker defying not only plausibility, but also common sense. That’s a great pity. It could have been an excellent contribution to the Western genre, as Russell Crowe’s performance alone overshadows all classic Western actors put together.
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I’m not a big fan of westerns and I was mainly drawn to 3:10 to Yuma for its cast. And really, both Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are seriously excellent and whenever these two get a look in, it’s well worth it. The story is a little shaky and the characters’ motivations are sometimes really strange, but when you stop delving into details you get more than a decent watch. I think it’s a bit of a shame that Mangold kept his feet so firmly on the ground and didn’t push hard enough, especially in the action scenes. Even though it could be seen as respect for the genre. In any case, I was pleasantly surprised and although westerns really aren’t my cup of tea, I liked this picture a lot. I think that this had a lot to do with Beltrami’s excellent music.
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I think the only thing I’ve watched less than western is Japanese anime, so I can’t evaluate this film objectively within the genre, but what I can say is that, up until a certain moment, I was so immersed that I was considering the highest rating, mostly thanks to the performances of the trio Crowe, Foster, and Bale. But that ending! It’s the biggest WTF I’ve seen in a long time. From the moment of the dialogue in the hotel room, when I first realised where things were heading, I hoped that it would turn out differently. Unfortunately, it didn’t and Yuma lost all its credibility and seriousness, which brought the rating to an average three stars. It’s a shame.
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A modern form and classic content with a lot of what we call genre clichés. I hesitated for a long time about how to review the film because on one hand, it is heavily burdened by genre myths and the logic of the actions of individual characters somewhat lags behind, and overall it is far from the down-to-earth historical reality. On the other hand, this is a genre that has always been a fairy tale for grown-ups and adults in its vast majority, and it is simply an escapist form of entertainment. If we consider it that way, then James Mangold and the present actors certainly did not disgrace themselves. The individual opponents have charisma and the characters are convincingly portrayed. Moreover, the dialogues, when I disregard that logic, also have depth and can be described as a kind of psychological drama. I would give it three stars because, considering what I saw, it deserved more comedic relief, and a couple of times the corners of my mouth twitched due to the opponents' illogical behavior, but I will probably shock and outrage most genre fans when I declare that I ultimately liked this film more than The Magnificent Seven. Overall impression: 75%.
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