Traditional Hollywood, known for its cautious approach, occasionally deserves recognition for doing something brave. One such example occurred in 2007—at a time when, due to the Iraq War, everything American was despised worldwide—it released films belonging to the most American of all American genres: the western. An even riskier move was made by the creators of 3:10 to Yuma, a remake of the 1957 classic western of the same name, when they refused to embellish their western with cheap political correctness and historical revisionism.
The plot of the film is based on a 1953 short story by Elmore Leonard, a writer whose work has been a popular source for Hollywood genre films. The main protagonist is Dan Evans (played by Christian Bale), a crippled Civil War veteran who, in an effort to save his ranch and feed his family, agrees to become a temporary sheriff’s deputy and undertake a rather dangerous task: escorting Ben Wade (played by Russell Crowe), the captured leader of a bloodthirsty gang of robbers, to the town of Contention, from where a train will take him to Yuma and its prison. It soon becomes clear that this job will be anything but easy, as Evans and his colleagues are pursued by Wade's accomplices led by the ruthless Charlie Prince (played by Ben Foster), while Wade himself tries to sweet-talk Evans with charming words and enticing financial offers to let him go.
James Mangold, a filmmaker who has built a reputation over the past decade on not overly impressive but mostly solid psychological dramas (such as his previous film Walk the Line), rightly concluded that the new version should not deviate too much from Leonard's literary source or from the half-century-old original film. The lead actors—Bale and Crowe—are aware of this and do not attempt to outshine classic Hollywood icons like Van Heflin and Glenn Ford. The Hitchcockian characterization of their roles—an ordinary man caught in an extraordinary situation and a charming villain—suits both actors well, who could play such parts in their sleep.
Mangold does not revise the original; rather, he supplements it. The conflict between the faceless good guy Evans and the impressive villain Wade is enhanced with far more physical action, including significantly more bloodshed, noticeable in the new version than in the black-and-white original. The western archetypes of good and bad guys, along with their moral dilemmas, are well illustrated by a gallery of characters, many of whom will end up dead. They are portrayed by an experienced and diverse team of character actors, from veteran Peter Fonda to youthful Charlie Prince in the role of a psychopathic criminal.
On the other hand, in his effort to make the film as attractive as possible for contemporary audiences, Mangold may have overdone it with action scenes while not cutting back on dialogue and characterization. As a result, especially towards the end, 3:10 to Yuma feels stretched out, particularly in comparison to the half-hour shorter and more effective original. This is perhaps best seen in the finale, where a big and unexpected twist, drowned out by a cacophony of gunfire and dying screams, lacks the psychological justification that was present in the original. Despite this, 3:10 to Yuma can be recommended as more than just a solid example of a vital genre that has so often been mistakenly claimed to be dead.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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