The Greatest Trick

These days, westerns are a bit like buses. After waiting for ages, two turn up. Mere weeks after the massively underrated Seraphim Falls comes another tale of the Wild West, albeit a more traditional one shorn of the former’s supernatural weirdness.

3:10 to Yuma is a rare example of a remake surpassing the original. The 1957 picture was a tense, tight affair, itself based on a short story by Elmore Leonard, but Walk the Line director James Mangold gives it a surprisingly effective new lease of life.

Struggling rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale) is failing to pay his bills, and is given days to pay up or he’ll lose his property. But after notorious wanted criminal Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) is captured, Evans volunteers to be part of a detail escorting him to a train that will take him to Yuma to face trial. Because Wade’s gang are still loose, it is likely those with him will be killed, but because Evans needs the money, he decides to take the risk.

Thematically similar to High Noon, this follows the plot of the original film to begin with, but makes a few significant additions and deviations in the second half, and it is all the better for it. These additions include an exciting chase on a railroad construction site, a deadly night ambush during an ill-advised detour through hostile Apache territory, and an interesting character arc for Evans’ angry 14-year-old son William, who, after years of disillusionment thinking his father is a spineless burn-out, gradually comes to respect him.

Russell Crowe, in the Glen Ford role from the original, is superb. Despite being a despicable thief and murderer, his humanity is hinted at throughout – whether through drawing pictures, showing sensitivity to women, or developing a grudging respect for Evans’ mans-gotta-do-what-a-mans-gotta-do determination. Evans himself provides another superb opportunity for Christian Bale to exercise his considerable acting muscles, and by the end of the film Van Heflin’s performance in the same role from the original has all but faded from memory.

The supporting cast includes Peter Fonda as Byron – an embittered, Bible-bashing, tough-as-nails lawman who has tracked Wade for years. Ben Foster is frighteningly vicious as Wade’s right hand man Charlie Prince, Gretchen Mol does very well in what is essentially a one-note imperilled wife role and Dallas Roberts is fine as Grayson Butterfield, a railroad representative. But it is Logan Lerman’s terrific performance as pivotal character Williams that is most praiseworthy among the smaller roles.

Like the original, this version of 3:10 to Yuma could well prove a minor classic of the genre. Certainly based on one viewing it is an exciting, thoughtful reinterpretation of the earlier film. Like High Noon, the original had an anti-McCarthy message and the screenwriters wisely retain these overtones, since they always have contemporary relevance. In addition, if you can stomach the brutal violence, this extols old fashioned, politically incorrect notions such as honour, sacrifice and even hints at Christian redemption. At their best, westerns were allegorical morality plays, and in that sense, this is truly a film about which one can say, “they don’t make ‘em like that any more.”

Simon Dillon, September 2007.