Synopsis
A cattle rancher is tasked with making sure an outlaw gets on a train.

Review
It was a good idea to update this movie to make it more exciting, while retaining the drama that made the original so good. And for the most part, this movie succeeds in doing so; it is in one crucial aspect of Dan's character that they make a change that affects the overall story. As in the original, struggling rancher Dan Evans (Bale) comes across Ben Wade (Crowe) and his gang holding up a stagecoach. Wade confiscates Dan's horses so he and his sons can't run off and tell the marshall. While in town to talk to Mr. Hollander, (Loftin), Dan finds himself volunteering (for a few hundred dollars) to help the stage's owner, Mr. Butterfield (Roberts), and a few others take Ben Wade, whom they have captured in the saloon, to catch the 3:10 train to Yuma out of Contention in two days. What follows is a very good remake of a good western that takes some liberties with the original, some for good, some for not so good, and does a good job of balancing action and drama. Russell Crowe does a fine job in filling Glenn Ford's shoes as the "gentleman" bandit, infusing his Wade with much more ruthlnessness and violence than Ford's (which is probably a reflection of the acceptance of such things nowadays) while still retaining Wade's charm. Christian Bale is very good as Dan Evans, matching Van Heflin's ability to show us how far one man can be pushed before snapping and how far he'll go to help his family. This movie's Dan is changed slightly in that he's missing a leg (from the war) and now has a son who isn't all that enamored of him. William (Lerman) is a teenager who resents his father for Dan's apparent weakness and timidity in the face of danger. It is this element that changes the movie and Dan's character. Instead of Dan seeing through to the end the task of getting Wade to the train because it's the right thing to do, now Dan is more driven by the need to become something in William's eyes. This is a good thing, but it takes away from the inherent nobility of the character and makes him less like Will Kane than the original's Dan Evans. If this was a change made to placate today's audiences with the thinking they wouldn't accept Dan doing what he's doing because it's the right thing to do, then that was a bad change. I think today's audiences would have accepted and embraced Dan just the same. As for everything else, this is a very well-made western, balancing action and drama. They've moved a lot of the psychological battling between Dan and Wade to the journey to Contention, allowing more action to take place while still keeping Wade's taunting and tempting of Dan. Since one of my problems with the original was the lack of interesting shootouts, I find the action sequences very good and welcome, especially the final big shootout en route to the train.

Highlights
Crowe and Bale; holding up the stage; to Contention; the hotel room; to the train

Rating
I give this film a bourbon rating; it's hard, action-packed, and full of stuff. As a remake, it's very good; as a western, it's also very good. The villain of Wade remains one of the best western villains, but loses a bit in the gentile aspect of his character with the violence. Teh score by Beltrami is very westernish, capturing the feel of classic Morricone scores.

See also:
3:10 to Yuma (1957)