“Sometimes a man has to be big enough to see how small he is.”
I made it a point to put “3:10 to Yuma” on my must-see list because I had read reviews hailing it as a definitive piece in the Western genre. Having not seen a film worthy of that label since “Tombstone” and suffering withdrawals from HBO cancelling “Deadwood,” I had to see “3:10 to Yuma” — a remake of a movie first made half a century ago — for myself. While it was a worthwhile picture, this was one that had way too many holes for me to consider it anything more than another ‘roided-up action flick in cowboy boots.
Russell Crowe was solid as usual playing Ben Wade, a fearsome mercenary who killed and robbed without heart or conscience. His righthand man, Charlie Prince (played by Ben Foster), captured the slightly disturbed, dangerous vibe well, but his intentions were hard to see, leaving him flat and one-dimensional. Christian Bale was good as always, depicting Dan Evans, a down-on-his luck farmer crippled in the war, overlooked by his family and forgotten by his government.
Crowe’s character quickly morphs from legendary phantom to an unbelievable blend of Keyser Soze (“Usual Suspects”), Doc Holliday (“Tombstone”) and Jason Vorhees (“Friday the 13th”). With a bounty on his head for delivering him to the train station in Yuma (hence the movie’s title), he is allowed to repeatedly kill members of the party taking him there and escape seemingly whenever he feels like it.
Director James Mangold (“Walk the Line,” “Girl, Interrupted” and “Cop Land”) filters in some memorable lines (“Tommy was weak. Tommy was stupid. Tommy is dead.”) and some armrest-clutching scenes, but there were too many clichés and too many head-scratching moments for my liking. It was an enjoyable film, but I found myself unable to elevate it enough to consider it one of the finer films of its genre that I’ve seen.
The combative relationship between Evans and his headstrong son, William, seemed forced, but it did help build up to a fairly dramatic closing scene. With brilliant use of the oncoming train as an integral part of the tension and soundtrack, Evans delivers the defining quote to his son as his possible death looms:
“You just remember your old man walked Ben Wade to that station when no one else would.”
Well-worth seeing, but “3:10 to Yuma” is not a flick that ingrains itself on you; it’s one that ends with you thinking, “Not bad” … but then quickly leaves your mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment