Movie: 3:10 to Yuma
Director: James Mangold
Starring: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale

I’m going to do this version of movie thoughts a bit differently.  I am going to attempt to remove a majority of subjective feel of reviews by using a point system looking at 5 areas (Story, Sound, Acting, Cinematography, Personal Enjoyment) all of which carry a full 2 points weight.  The Personal Enjoyment category is in the group to allow the personal experience to have some value in the review – just not overwhelming the review.

So, here we go…

Story

A poor rancher, Dan Evans (Christian Bale) is slowly watching his ranch slowly die away and after a series of events he has the opportunity to take a criminal, Ben Wade (Russell Crowe), to a train that would ship Ben off to Yuma prison.

What Dan faces is the classic moral situation – Does one do the “right” thing when no one is looking or take the easy way out?  Ben Wade, however, is on a journey of self-discovery of sorts – Does he have a set of guiding principles, and what are they?

It’s interesting to watch as both questions are interwoven throughout the movie, one playing off of the other.  Ultimately, both characters learn about their true sense of self but it seems as if they both ignore their true emotions during the movie until the last 10 minutes.

Points: 1.5/2

Sound

The music, sound design and mixing levels were above average. It seems that westerns, for whatever reason, have a problem creating realistic gun battles. I am unsure if this is due to the spaghetti western history of the genre. A 2004 western, Open Range, changed that.  The end shoot out had amazing quality, and 3:10 to Yuma picked up where Open Range left off. The shots in 3:10 sounded REAL, the bullets hitting the wood sounded, well… like something really hitting wood. This simply added to the overall high production quality of the movie.

Points: 2/2

Acting

Crowe and Bale play very well together and provided believable performances.  Both are leading men which lead to a situation where it’s not clear who exactly is supposed to be the “Lead” in the movie.  While Crowe had top billing, the focus was on Bale and his internal conflict most of the time.  Ben Foster, who plays Charlie Prince, a member of Ben’s gang is FANTASTIC as a creepy, no morals, killer.  And it was a pleasure to see Peter Fonda on screen in a Western.

I have to cut down the points on this simply because Crowe/Bale leading man situation – while giving top notch performances –  took away from the movie ever so slightly for me.

Points: 1.5/2

Cinematography

For some reason, I’ve become spoiled by the Epic westerns.  The huge sky, the wide shots of the open range… you know. While this movie was shot with a masterful eye for detail, it felt more like a polished movie for the masses than the westerns I’ve grown to love.

I’m not complaining, I’m not saying this was poorly shot – there were a number of camera placements and edits that where cool AND that added to the story – but there was just something visually missing for me.

Points: 1/2

Personal Enjoyment

Lead acting confusion and certain visuals aside, I really enjoy this movie.  I simply love the conflict, the acting – especially of the 2nd players – is great, and the sound design adds to the entire experience.  I’d watch this over and over…

Points: 2/2

And the bottom line

Enjoyable movie that is paced quite well.  I look at this movie as Christian Bale’s hidden gem, as well as transition to a true leading man (in some ways taking the torch from Crowe).  If you enjoy internal conflict and westerns, I suspect you’ll enjoy this as well.

Total: 8/10

Oh, btw…

If you would like another take on the movie, check out Wandering Coyote. She agree with me on Ben Foster’s performance but has other thoughts on the movie.

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