Review: 3:10 TO YUMA

Here is another film that had its trailer show up in Carter’s recent digest article reviewing the best upcoming trailers. Intrigued by what I saw there and after learning that the film is a remake, I quickly added the original 1957 version to my Netflix queue. Knowing that the original was so near and dear to director James Mangold’s heart that he fashioned 1997’s COP LAND as a modern homage to the original also perked my interest, and I figured it was only fair to see the original before I started critiquing the remake. To quickly sum up the plot for both films, the story follows Dan Evans, a hard-on-his-luck rancher who capitalizes on his opportune involvement in the capture of legendary criminal Ben Wade to make some much needed money for his family. To collect his payment though, he must help to deliver Wade to Contention City, where he can be put on the train that goes to the prison in Yuma. Wade’s ruthless and devoted gang, though, will do whatever it takes to see that this doesn’t happen. Before I get into Mangold and company’s retelling of this classic Western tale, it seems only fitting to say a few quick words about the original.

A classic tale retold...

First of all, the original is a big hit among Western fans, and the director of the ’57 version, Delmer Daves, filled the film with some great camera work and an amazing sense of suspense. The thematic undertones and psychological games that were played between Ben Wade (Glenn Ford) and Dan Evans (Van Heflin) as they waited for the arrival of the 3:10 prison train to Yuma added a lot of depth to what otherwise would have been a simple good guy vs. bad guy shoot ‘em up Western. What lacked in the original though was a real second act. The film starts with Wade and his gang robbing the stage, and then the lead up to Wade’s capture and the organization of the posse that is to transport him to Yuma. Then suddenly, they are arriving in Contention City, home of the train station, and there’s just this really drawn out third act where Wade and Evans are holed up in a hotel room waiting for the train to arrive. It’s tense, yes. But at times, it drags on a bit slowly and the film lacks some of the excitement that could have been seized upon by a little more elaborate telling of the trip to Contention.

This is the true strength of the newest version of 3:10 TO YUMA. The newest incarnation actually kept several of the great moments from the original, just touching them up slightly. The more noticeable additions made in the new version were strategic, and I feel like they were well made choices by the filmmakers. The trip from Bisbee, Arizona where the story begins to Contention where it ends is developed into a much longer and deeper experience for the audience. We learn much more about Wade in this telling then we did in the classic version. Russell Crowe channels Ford well, with the same quiet, chilling self-confidence that lets you know he’s a total bad-ass. However, Crowe’s Wade is given much more opportunities to display just what a bad-ass he is and we in the audience get to see just how ruthless he can be at several points along his journey.

Peter Fonda in 3:10 TO YUMA

Peter Fonda’s addition to the cast as a bounty hunter along for the journey in bringing Wade to justice was a great choice. The interaction between the two during the initial stage hold-up is priceless and sets the tone for Wade’s complexity – you see, he’s not just a cold-hearted killer, a man who would shoot one of his own posse without batting an eye for not following through on an order to its completion; he also has another layer, something possibly bordering on compassion, or perhaps its just insanity. Either way, there’s a dimension brought to Wade that you miss in the original. Perhaps it’s the violence or blood lacking from a film made in the dying days of the Hayes Code, I don’t know. But the fact remains, that Wade and Evans both are fleshed out more completely in this story, and I feel this is due in large part to the journey we get to take part in that is missing in the 1957 version.

Christian Bale as Dan Evans, and Russel Crowe as Ben Wade

Besides some classic scenes that were retold in this new film, something else is left-over from the original – the unbelievable ending. The original has probably the happiest ending to a Western that I’ve ever seen. And it’s not that I didn’t buy it because it was happy. I didn’t buy it because it didn’t entirely track for me that things would really go down the way that they did. Well, 2007’s YUMA ends very differently than the original, but without going into immense detail on how it does so and ruining the movie for you,I’ll just have to say that despite the great character work done with Wade this time around, I still just didn’t buy into the ending. So better, yes, on many counts; perfect—not quite. The performances were great – Christian Bale, Russel Crowe, Logan Lerman as Evans’ son, and Fonda as the bounty hunter were all outstanding. As I mentioned above though, the story let me down in some places just like the original. While I would give the ’57 version 3 stars (liked it), it is fair to say that I really liked this one, but didn’t love it.