3:10 To Yuma
Both an action-packed Western and a compelling allegory of the Christian faith, director James Mangold comes up with the absolute best the genre has seen in a long time. As the legendary Robin Hood / Billy The Kid type outlaw, Russell Crowe pretty much tops himself again, giving us a bad guy with varying shades of gray, obviously maintaining a strong belief in God despite the fact that he knows his soul may very well be damned. As the struggling rancher assigned to bring him to his rendezvous with a train bound for prison, Christian Bale is also impressive with a less showy but no less compelling performance, giving us a common man whose financial and health troubles have made him question his faith, yet still retains his core values, refusing to let himself be tempted or seduced by Crowe even when he’s offered a substantial amount of money to set him free. Indeed, the beauty of the film is in watching the outlaw almost be converted to the side of good not by having his captor sit there and spew bible verse, but by observing the rock-solid integrity of the Bale character and the example he sets, which draws his admiration and respect and leads up to the fateful climax. In other roles, Peter Fonda brings a great hardened toughness to the role of the bounty hunter riding along with them, especially during an early agonizing scene when a bullet is pulled out of his stomach; Ben Foster, while not outright stealing the movie as many have claimed playing Crowe’s henchman, gives a solid, nuanced turn as a trigger-happy psycho killer; Alan “Steve The Pirate” Tudyk gets to contribute as the animal doctor along for the ride; and Logan Lerman as Bale’s 14 year old son is the biggest surprise: anytime (especially in a Western) you have a teenage son character with a rebellious streak, the performance has to survive one landmine after another in order to keep it from turning into a whiny, wussy charade, but Lerman avoids all that by underplaying, refusing to look like he’s gonna cry when having a conflict with his dad and keeping his hero worship of Crowe’s Ben Wade to a very subtle minimum. There is a not-too-understated attempt to make a commentary on an issue in our modern age (i.e. torture of inmates), and the fact that we’re always reminded that Bale has only one leg yet has very good mobility nonetheless are the only minor quibbles the viewer can find here. Mangold keeps the story moving at a good pace, especially in the way that he mixes the action and character development thanks to a very good script, and while the visuals are a little tighter than usual for a Western, it helps greatly to keep the story focused on the characters rather than the scenery. Then there’s the ending, as moving and emotional as it as, where the Christian themes of redemption and repentance come full circle, and which only the most bitter hardcore liberal can truly find fault in. All in all, a modern classic, and the rare example of a remake that betters its 1950s original by a mile…
9/10