Review: 3:10 To Yuma

This makes the 3rd review of 3:10 To Yuma to appear on this blog, which must mean something... I'm just not sure what!

I watched this Christian Bale / Russell Crowe testosterone-fest last night in splendid Blu-Ray, and found it to be quite an immersive - not to mention entertaining - experience. It's a familiar enough tale - gang of bandits terrorize region in post-Civil War Arizona, leader gets caught by law and has to be transported across country in order to stand trial, while gang members plot to free him - but sparkling performances by Bale, Crowe, Gretchen Mol, Peter Fonda and several others make it all come alive.

I always find westerns to be a little hard to take, and can count the ones I've enjoyed on the fingers of one hand. 3:10 To Yuma now joins that group, along with Unforgiven and... well, if I'm allowed to include Seven Samurai by Kurasawa (the inspiration for The Magnificent Seven, a western which I've actually never seen), then that may be about it. However, I think every movie genre has at least a few masterpieces in it that have crossover appeal for those who wouldn't normally enjoy a ______ (western / musical / romantic comedy), and Yuma seems to fit that bill here. As long as you can stomach the "ah, shucks, ma'am" dialogue, you'll find a fairly deep story here.

Bale and Crowe are both excellent, and the story is really all about them, as two sides of the same coin. Both undergo transformations over the course of the film, ending up more alike than different by the time it's all over. While that progression wasn't exactly unexpected, it was still pulled off remarkably well. The eyes of both actors carry one particular scene late in the proceedings, the significance of which is that each of the men - bitter rivals up to that point - begin to re-define themselves in terms of their relationship to the other. Bale's hapless rancher can finally earn the respect of his eldest son by doing something that no one else has been able to - bring Crowe to justice - while the other has finally met a truly good and honourable man after a lifetime of not believing in the mere possibility of finding such a thing in an era of such utter desolation and lawlessness. The ending may be corny to some, but I bought it and basked in the emotion of it all.

If anything bored me about 3:10 To Yuma, it was the formulaic setup in the middle of the film where the group of men transporting Crowe were clearly going to be picked off, one by one, in a tradition immortalized in countless horror movies over the past several decades. It's impossible to see that begin to take shape and not start guessing who'll go first, and who will be the last men standing (not much of a contest here, as it turns out). I hoped for some surprises along the way, but while the details were entertaining, the overall arc wasn't particularly unpredictable.

Still, the two lead actors were able to carry my interest throughout, and as the final credits rolled I felt that it'd been a couple of hours well spent.

Rating: *** 1/2