3:10 TO YUMA IS ONE TRAIN YOU DON'T WANT TO MISSRussell Crowe, Christian Bale, Peter Fonda, Ben Foster... have I left out any good reason you wouldn't want to see this movie? Westerns used to be shot in black and white, now shot in color, we find 3:10 has many shades of gray. This is no ordinary western. All the elements are there; authentic scenery, lots of gun fire, spitin', grimy, low-down, no-good bad guys; but it's more than that. The chief "bad guy" is Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) who is still pretty dirty, but more educated and smooth talking than the rest of his gang. He is captured in a small town where Dan Evans (Christian Bale) and his family live meagerly. For a price, Evans will take Wade to Yuma to catch the 3:10 that will bring him back to jail. Evans is a good honest man with traditional family values and he fights for what is right and fair. There are other men along the journey to Yuma; Wade's gang planning on releasing him and the other men intent on seeing this bad guy brought to justice. As the journey progresses, we find that Wade isn't really "all bad" as Evan's son states; to which he replies, "Yes, I am." That line between good and bad gets crossed, by both leads and the gray shades are many. Evans has just enough anger and fury as Wade does compassion and understanding. They develop a mutual respect and understanding right up until the very end. They don't become best friends or ride off into the sunset together, the ending is realistic and appropriate. Just when you think you know which side you are on, you realize the fault lies in taking sides in the first place.
Rating: Excellent Western drama, authentic and outstanding performances; worthwhile.
