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3:10 to Yuma (2007)

Director: James Mangold
Writers: Halsted Welles (screenplay), Michael Brandt (screenplay)
Cast: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Ben Foster
Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime


"A small-time rancher agrees to hold a captured outlaw who's awaiting a train to go to court in Yuma. A battle of wills ensues as the outlaw tries to psych out the rancher."

They don't make 'em like this anymore! This was rip roaring, good fun, with colorful & well done characters, and lots of great S.W. desert scenery shots. There's enough happening in the film to keep anyone interested. I found it exciting. This is one of my favorite Russell Crowe performances, I think he's perfectly cast here.

What makes his character so interesting is: he's multi dimensional. I think it was Elia Kazan who said every bad guy in a film should have some redeeming quality, and every good guy should have a flaw...Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) is a heartless killer who takes any advantage he can and uses it for his own needs. And yet I found myself liking him despite the fact he's truly a bad guy!






Same goes for Dan Evans (Christian Bale) he's our good guy, but he's not wearing a 'white hat', and he does have some serious flaws, and that makes him three dimensional. I liked his scenes with his son, Logan Lerman, who was a good actor too. Those scenes showed us how Bale's character has this inner turmoil & doubt, and we experience that by his son's outright disdain for his father.

I also liked how the film balanced action while slowly revealing why Christian Bale's character felt like such a loser, and why he was so determined to get Russell Crowe to the 3:10 train at Yuma.

I love westerns, they're one part history and one part tall tale and that makes for a great way to escape and enjoy the wild old west.