A Battle of Wills in the American Southwest
Christian Bale, Russell Crowe

By Breanne Boland September 20, 2007 Issue

The film 3:10 to Yuma, based on the 1957 movie starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin as well as the short story by Elmore Leonard, finds Christian Bale and Russell Crowe in a battle of the wills. Set in the lawless, profit-seeking 1800s American Southwest, the film follows two men, equally hardheaded but taking very different paths.

Bale plays Dan Evans, an impoverished farmer, deep in debt and living on land coveted by railroad developers and unscrupulous lenders. His youngest son is sick; his oldest son only sees his father as a man willing to be walked on by those richer, more daring, or smarter than himself.

When outlaw Ben Wade (Crowe) gets caught after his gang viciously robs an armored coach, Evans becomes involved, first as a witness, then as a paid guard, escorting Wade to meet the 3:10 train to Yuma, which will take Wade to prison and hanging.

What should be a minor trip — a two-day ride on horseback through the generally uninhabited desert — becomes a race for survival. Wade’s gang, led by a fiercely loyal psychopath, is tracking the group escorting Wade. This group includes a grizzled old guard and a city-bred financier who has lost a fortune to Wade’s robberies.

Crowe, naturally, is a most charismatic villain, frequently acting as a breath of civilization and gentility amongst the dust-spattered, hard-living denizens of the American frontier. However, he does a marvelous job of switching from gentleman to psychopath in a split-second, of blending the cunning necessary to be a successful criminal with the brutality needed to lead a gang.

Bale is, as ever, quietly intense, harboring his own reasons for forcing his family to live such a difficult life. As the caravan continues across the desert, Evans becomes the driving force to keep going to Yuma, and to take Wade to justice. This mission becomes as dear to him as keeping his family alive and sustaining his meager cattle herd. As his fellow caravan-dwellers drop out (or die out), he pushes on, forming a strange and fascinating bond with the unpredictable and explosive Wade culminating in a thrilling climax.

Westerns seem to attract capable actors in search of solid scenes and real drama. Yuma is no exception. The caravan includes marvelous veteran Peter Fonda. Six Feet Under’s wilting artist Ben Foster is transformed here as the unhinged first officer of Wade’s gang, a sharpshooter with more loyalty than sense (or sanity). Serenity’s Alan Tudyk plays a doctor who gives rare and welcome injections of comic relief, and the supporting cast includes names like Gretchen Mol and Luke Wilson.

This is a movie about morality, the effects of personal choices, and the weight of the path not taken. It’s also about a pair of men equally committed to very different existences, and what happens when they come together with very different agendas. Apparently Tom Cruise was once set to play Crowe’s role; happily, the film ended up with the cast it did. This is a great harbinger of the solid dramas fall will usher into theaters.

Bottom line: a solid remake of a classic

Coming Attractions
Sept. 21st
Into the Wild - Sean Penn directs this adaptation of the Jon Krakauer book. Chris McCandless left a promising post-college life to roam penniless through the Alaskan wilderness. This film was shot almost entirely on location, including where McCandless met his sad end.

Sydney White - Amanda Bynes is the Snow White to the seven nerds she lives with after being dumped by a sorority. The eight outcasts seek to overturn college social life in a film that is surely nuanced and smart and not at all rife with lazy stereotypes.

Resident Evil: Extinction - More video-game-to-film zombie action, this time in a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas.

Sept 28th
Lust, Caution - Ang Lee again turns sharply from his last work, Brokeback Mountain. This time, he shifts back to Mandarin for this tale of a young woman must earn the love and trust of a powerful politician in order to sabotage his work. Rated NC-17, so good luck seeing it anytime soon.

The Kingdom - Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, and Jennifer Garner are security experts dispatched to the Middle East to find answers following a terrorist bombing that killed scores of American civilians.

The Darjeeling Limited - Three brothers (Jason Schwartman, Adrien Brody, and Owen Wilson) take a train across India in order to become closer again; naturally, mayhem ensues. Let’s hope that Wes Anderson’s quirk is more Rushmore this time and less The Life Aquatic.

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