3:10 to Yuma - Review

Director: James Mangold
Writers: Welles/Brandt/Haas
Starring: Christian Bale/Russell Crowe
Runtime: 1 hr 57 minutes

Christian Bale and Russell Crowe star in a film based on an Elmore Leonard story.

That sounds like a pitch made in Heaven, doesn't it? Unfortunately, while the movie doesn't turn into Hell, it certainly makes you feel like you're in Hollywood purgatory.

The story follows the Western genre to a T: Bale plays a down-on-his-luck rancher. A railroad executive (the railroad is to Westerns what Big Oil is to today's films) is threatening to run him off his land. If Bale doesn't come up with enough cash to pay off his loans, his family is going to be destitute. Desperate, Bale...

Doesn't do too much.

3:10 to Yuma doesn't work because it's hero doesn't do any. He doesn't make events happen. He watches them, sometimes reacts to them, but more or less goes along with the flow.

After witnessing a stagecoach robbery committed by Crowe and his gang, Bale and his two sons are robbed of their horses. They discover one of the stagecoach victims is still alive, and Bale decides to bring him into town.

Crowe plays one of those "noble villians" that pop up in Westerns: sure, he kills unarmed men, and yes, he's been known to blow up women and children, but at least he's friendly when he does it. He's incredibly smooth and intelligent, and has the aura of man who knows exactly what is going to happen and when.

That's why it's incredible when he gets captured after the stage coach hold-up. He rides into town with his gang. They split up. Crowe knows the Marshal will be returning soon. So instead of high tailing it out of town, he tells his gang that he'll meet them in Mexico, then goes upstairs for a tryst with a harlot. Satisfied, he comes down the stairs and is captured without firing a shot.

Bale, hungry for cash, agrees to help transport Crowe to Contention. This is the town with the closest railroad station, the one that will take Crowe to Yuma on a 3:10 train for his date with a noose. The rest of the film revolves around Bale and the posse getting Crowe on the train before the bad guys can catch up with them.

I tried to enjoy 3:10 to Yuma. The filmmakers wouldn't let me. Bale's character, for one, is frustratingly passive. He's cowed by the railway, cowed by the villians, and constantly insulted by his own teenage son, who rightly thinks that Bale is a chicken.

All of that is okay, however, as we know that cowardly characters are going to eventually break out of their mould and become the "hero." However, in 3:10 to Yuma, it takes forever. Bale follows along with the posse, takes more grief from his son, is volunatrily disarmed and de-horsed on several occassions, needs a handcuffed Russell Crowe to beat off the Apaches, so forth. You will be waiting a long time to like Bale, and in movies, waiting a long time to like a hero is the kiss of death.

A lead character should lead, and Bale's never does. In every scene involving conflict, it is either Crowe or, worse yet, a supporting character that sets things in motion. In one scene, confronted by more bad guys, it is the town veterinarian that saves the day by hitting a man with a shovel. Then the good guys all run away.

The last quarter of the film is quite good. You have to ignore the fact that everyone, Bale included, is the worst shot in Arizona history. That's nothing new in film, but 3:10 to Yuma really makes you wonder what the characters could possibly be aiming at. The ending is also so against character-type that it is hard to take it seriously, but there are still some good moments here.

It's a good idea to judge movies by the genre that they're in. An animated feature meant for children shouldn't be treated like Schindler's List. As Westerns go, 3:10 to Yuma is mediocre.