4 out of 5

Director: James Mangold

When I first watched this movie, I was expecting a thrown together star-driven thing – post Batman Bale, director of Walk the Line, Russell Crowe – and so I brushed off the results as underwhelming. Rewatching it now, with some distance, this is riveting stuff. There are some beats that keep it from feeling like a full down and dirty Western, but director Mangold pitched 3:10 to Yuma with a surprising amount of depth and darkness. Christian Bale plays Dan Evans, a wounded Civil War vet (I think it was the Civil War… but, y’know, historical details ain’t my bag) who can’t seem to maintain the respect of his eldest son or his wife, scrambling to maintain a farm with pushy landowners who are trying to make way for the railroad. Due to various film machinations, Evans ends up taking the job to escort the villainous Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to a nearby town to catch the 3:10 prison train to Yuma. To say that the film supports certain film tropes – man must prove himself to son, ultimate good triumphs evil, etc. – is to sell it short. What makes 3:10 so powerful is how uncertain Mangold makes things. Bale is not completely down and out, nor is he a hero. Crowe is most certainly evil, cynical intelligence giving him tainted insight. The incredible patience and quiet loses its muster in the middle, the less-fleshed-out characters (played by Foster and Fonda) fit the genre but not, necessarily this film, and the very ending is one step from being a push too melodramatic, but overall this is thrilling stuff, and every moment spoken and unspoken between Bale and Crowe is worth the runtime.