In Continuum.

3:10 to Yuma really isn't anything original, almost literally. It is a remake of the 1957 film of the same name, but that does not mean that the film suffered the same fate as most remakes out there. This film does not have the kind of curse that most remakes have, the kind that lives in the shadow of the film it was based upon. In fact, this is a very modern take on the older film, and it certainly has breathed life into the genre that has been thought to be dead for a very long time. The old west is back, and that is all thanks to James Mangold who has managed to craft this intense and moving picture. Usually, a western is a story set in the west with a certain story to tell. This film, I feel, is the opposite of that. This film  has a story to tell, and it just so happens to be set in the west, that's all. We don't have those one-on-one gunfights on the streets anymore, they belong to the old west. This is the new west, this is 3:10 to Yuma.

The film tells the story of an ordinary rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale), escorting a famous criminal Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) from his town to Yuma, where he would be taken into custody and then executed for robbing 22 carriages filled with money that belonged to the railway company. Dan Evans, along with his wife and two sons, lives on a ranch that is on the verge of breaking down. The drought has been causing a lot of problems to the family, and Dan's eldest son William has been losing faith in his father for a long time. He feels that Dan is too soft to deal with anything important, that the failure of the range is to be blamed upon his father. So when the opportunity came to escort a dangerous criminal to the train station at a pay of $200, Dan jumped at the chance to prove his worth, and to earn the kind of respect that he should be getting from his own son. But Ben's crew has other plans for the band of volunteers escorting Ben Wade to the rope. They'd do whatever it takes to get their leader back, all the while with young William Evans following his father secretly without knowing that he was about to get himself in the middle of a bloody gunfight. 

As mentioned before, this film has a story to tell, and it just so happens that it is a story set in the west. The character development presented in this film is astounding, and it is probably one of the most vivid I have seen as of late. Interestingly, however, most of the development in character happens around the main character, but not himself. Christian Bale's character remains the same pretty much the same throughout the film, but that is not to say that Christian Bale did a bad job. Dan Evans is a man of absolute righteousness, and he is the kind of guy who would give you his horse in the middle of the desert, if it would guarantee his life and the safety of his children. He never turns his back on his promises, and he certainly knows a thing or two about loyalty and justice. That does not change throughout the movie, but that sure made an impact in his son William and Ben, the bandit. From a son that never gave much respect to his father, William began to show some form of admiration for his father as the film progressed. Ben, moved by Dan's true devotion to the cause, suffered from something akin to the Stockholm Syndrome and aided him to kill Apaches vigilante railway workers along the way. 

In terms of the performance, it is top-notch from all around, quite a trend in the movies I have seen as of late - due to the Oscar season, I am sure. Christian Bale brings life to a role that does not require a lot of life to play. Dan Evans is a stubborn man, a man with a singular goal and not much of a struggle to make the character interesting. But Bale brings the character a kind of intensity that he usually displays in his other roles. That is probably what makes him a respectable actor in my eyes, the way he can take the most ordinary role and make it his own. Russell Crowe also delivers as the kind of bad guy you would want to love because of his charms and charisma. You'd be finding yourself rooting for Ben Wade instead of being against him, despite the fact that he really is the head of the mob. He is the leader of the pack, but his number two - Charlie Prince (Ben Foster) - really is the deadly one. In the hunt to get his boss back, he kills whoever that stood in his way and he really is the cold-blooded one of the lot, and without any forms of charm whatsoever. It is a refreshing role for Ben Foster, especially after his lukewarm role in X-Men: The Last Stand as the Angel. The supporting cast also presents themselves perfectly in their supporting roles. 

James Mangold can't be considered a veteran director, since he doesn't actually have a lot of films under his belt. I personally loved Identity for what it was, but that passion is not shared by the majority of the viewers I have met. Walk the Line was a great biopic of Johnny Cash, but to me it was just another biopic that did not break any grounds, unlike I'm Not There. There was a sense of staleness in the air with biopics, with films like Ali and Ray, they all follow a certain formula and they seldom make any breakthroughs, to be honest. But here he is with 3:10 to Yuma, and it certainly proved to the audience that he has the ability to direct a radically different genre and make it come back to life all over again. There isn't anything terribly fancy about this film, and I won't call it a best picture quality film. But it certainly was a very decent movie, something that definitely excited me from the beginning till the end, especially the last twenty minutes of the film that involved the stand off between Dan and a whole pack of bandits wanting to take  his life. It sounds like a cliche scene from the latest Rambo movie, but I can assure you that the execution is much better and way more effective. 

The whole film had excellent pacing and a wonderful treatment in the character development department. The end of the film was a dramatic one, but I personally was not convinced, however. Any more details shared would be a spoiled experience for the viewers, but let's just say that the ending, though very well done, bordered on being overly dramatic and pretentious. Some people might find the ending to be ridiculous, but then it couldn't have ended in a different manner, as to the one being presented in the film. Nonetheless, the film was a satisfying one to sit through, and we definitely need more productions like this one to bring back the old west. 

9/10