3:10 to Yuma

"4 out of 4 stars"

I haven't watched a lot of Western movies. I am unfortunately not that familiar with this genre since they were mostly made a long time before I was born, but I absolutely loved this movie. I think anyone who loves this genre or in general likes watching a good movie that has everything a good movie needs: acting, good story, good characterization, will enjoy watching it.

It is the story of a rancher named Dan (played by Christian Bale) who is about to lose his land that is claimed by railroad makers and who are attacking his ranch to make him and his family evacuate their land. At the same time we see an outlaw named Ben Wade (played by Russell Crowe) who attacks stagecoaches with his gang. We see him as a fast shooter, and a merciless man and at the same time a charismatic one as well.

The movie starts with a well-made chasing and shooting scene when a stagecoach is attacked by the gang, which got me interested in this genre (if of course all of them have a chasing scene like this!). When Wade is captured and needs to be delivered to a train station to be taken by the 3:10 train to Yuma prison, Dan volunteers to be one of the people escorting him for the money he will get as a reward if he manages to deliver him, that will help him keep his cattle and ranch. In this journey, the interaction between the two main characters begins which shows us how Dan wants to do what he thinks is morally right and his attempt at doing good in life. He tells Wade that he is leading an honest life, and in response Wade tells him it's honest but not a life! We see how law, which is supposed to act as the good and morally, is disrupted. When the Sheriff of the town where the train station is, tells Wade that there is law and order in his town, Wade mocks him by telling him "That's reassuring!"

Wade doesn't simply want to be good. When Dan's son tells him there is good in you, he says "I wouldn't last 5 minutes if I wasn't as rotten as hell!" Again, as I said in my last post, people have a story for being "bad"! Although this is a fictional story, Wade describes how his father had died when he was 8 and how his mother had abandoned him back then (the way Crowe plays this scene is absolutely amazing to watch and has a deep impact on me, the viewer).

Dan is stuck in a moral dilemma. When Wade offers him $1000 to let him go (which is much more than what he has been promised to receive for delivering Wade), he gets tempted to take it, because it would change his life and he would be able to help his family but as he had said before he wants to have an honest life but this time, the thought of people finding out what he had done makes him refuse it. At the same time, when everyone backs out in taking Wade to the station when his gang comes to his rescue and threatens to kill everyone, Dan is the only person who steps up. He says he wants to be a hero, because he has lost his leg in a retreat by their own army in the civil war and he can't tell his son about it and he wants to become a hero in his son's eyes, who doesn't have faith in him (when the ranch is attacked in the beginning of the movie, he tells his dad that he wouldn't be able to do anything and he doesn't believe in him).

When he is offered money by the sheriff to walk away and let Wade go, he says he finally sees the world the way it is. He got money for the leg he lost in the civil but it wasn’t so he could walk away...it was given to him so that the government could walk away and now he was offered the same amount of money that was initially supposed to be given to him to deliver the prisoner but this time for him to walk away. He found what was right. A simple story of moral.

Wade finally helps Dan in becoming a hero. Maybe he pities him. Maybe there is good in him as Dan's son had told him or maybe also because he had escaped prison before and he knew he could do it again, so why not help another man by doing so?!

I loved the ending. Can’t give more details if you haven’t seen the movie yet (which is unlikely since it was released back in 2007!) but still…would recommend this to those who like to see an entertaining movie with A class performances.

The director of this movie, James Mangold, is also the director of Walk the Line, Identity, Kate & Leopold, and Girl, Interrupted. I have seen them all which are great movies, especially the first two. So, it wasn't surprising to see another great movie of him, and it shows how brilliant he must be for making such a good movie in a totally different genre.