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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: 3:10 to Yuma

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#1 of 1 Posted 9/3/07 12:09 AM

From Harveycritic Posts 1632 Last Nov-2
To All [Msg # 22613.1 ]

3:10 TO YUMA

Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey S. Karten
Lionsgate
Grade: B+
Directed by:    James Mangold
Written By: Halsted Welles, Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, from a 1953 Elmore Leonard short story
Cast:   Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Logan Lerman, Peter Fonda, Dallas Roberts, Ben Foster, Vinessa
Shaw, Alan Tudyk, Gretchen Mol
Screened at: Regal 34th St., NYC, 9/2/07
Opens: September 7, 2007

With its ticking clock, its focus on conscience, its hero eager to win or retain the respect of those who support him and those who do not, James Mangold’s “3:10 to Yuma” cannot help evoking thoughts of Fred Zinnemann’s 1952 “High Noon.” “High Noon,” considered by some the yardstick by which all other westerns are judged, needed that strong, even charismatic performance by Gary Cooper as Marshall Cooper, who on the fateful day of both his wedding and his retirement hears that a gunman is coming after him seeking revenge. He could have backed out, particularly since the townspeople are unwilling to help in this showdown, just as Dan Evans (Christian Bale) could have maintained his status as an innocent bystander at a time in the Great American West that bandits were holding up stagecoaches guarded by Pinkertons and Indian tribes were showing their hostility to the greater forces that were occupying the land.

But Dan Evans, in this greatly opened-up re-invention of Delmer Daves’s 1957 movie of the same name–which starred Van Heflin and Glenn Ford and which concentrated more on the psychological manipulation of hero and bandit in a hotel room than on the wide open spaces–balances sharp dialogue with credible shoot-‘em-ups. The interplay between a vulnerable, even desperate Dan Evans and his cool, smooth-talking bad guy, Ben Wade (Russell Crowe), is the highlight, making this film a fine choice for those who relish the theatrical while the gorgeous scenery lensed by Mangold’s cameraman, Phedon Papamichael, will appeal to those who are more action-oriented. Per Hollywood tradition, the villain gets all the good lines, making him the guy that the audience might like to see escape from the clutches of the law. One example: “It takes a big man to know how small he is.”

There’s nothing small about Ben Wade, however. The leader of a band of eight who virtually worship the guy, one psychotic bandit, Charlie Prince (Ben Foster) ready to lay down his life for the man, is so magnetic that he can bed a bartender (Vinessa Shaw) within minutes after dishing out a line about her beautiful green eyes. Yet he is so carelessly wrapped up in her that he allows time for the authorities to arrest him, to situate him for a couple of days in the town of Contention (wherein the sharp dialogue between Ben Wade and Dan Evans ensues), until Wade can be put on the 3:10 to the federal court in Yuma which can expect to find him guilty of robbery and murder and have him dangling at the end of a rope.

Mangold wastes no time in setting the tone of the picture as an action Western. Rancher Dan Evans is awakened to find his barn on fire, the arsonists holding him responsible for a debt he cannot pay because of a drought. Dan has lost the respect of his pretty wife, Alice (Gretchen Mol) and his son Wil (Logan Lerman) because of the man’s inability to support them decently. Offered a chance to make $200 to pay off his debt, Dan volunteers to join a posse to transport criminal Ben Wade to the train. Yet, while Wade is handcuffed and surrounded by serious men–who should have forgotten about the Constitutional right to a trial by jury rather than let themselves become taken in by the master of brain-games–he gets the jump on all of them as easily as he can plant his charms on women.

In a movie that’s basically about the arrest and transportation of a dangerous criminal, good supportive performances abound particularly by Peter Fonda as an aging bounty hunter bent on revenge against Wade, and by Ben Foster in the role of a deputy gangleader whose blazing eyes betray a dangerous psychosis. The conclusion of the pic has been changed from the original, a fast-moving, twist-after-twist finale to a splendid revival.

Rated R.    117 minutes   © 2007 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online

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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: 3:10 to Yuma

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