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Overall Rating
 Awesome: 38.37%
Worth A Look: 38.37%
Average: 15.12%
Pretty Bad: 5.81%
Total Crap: 2.33%
8 reviews, 38 user ratings
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| 3:10 to Yuma (2007) |
by Cochise
"A brilliant Western. Don't miss it if you love westerns."
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This is a great western. Anyone who loves reading or watching westerns will absolutely love this film. It has a brilliant plot and fantastic camera work. The visuals are everything one would expect.WARNING - In order to review this film and discuss its meaning, I have to reveal the ending. So . . . if you don't want to know what happens in the end, please don't read this until after you have seen the film.
This film will satisfy any die-hard western fan. It has all the elements one would expect and want in a western. There is the bad guy with an artistic soul, but still a bad guy. Then there are the evil henchmen, the cowardly lawmen, the son who wants to prove himself to his father, the father who needs money for his ranch (the land of which the railroad wants), gunplay. a train, a mine and an archetypal western town.
The plot basically is that Dan Evans, a rancher who was wounded in the Civil War and has part of his leg amputated and has to use a prothesis to walk, is being harassed by the railroad to pay back some money he owes. (The railroad men burn his barn in one scene.)
The badman Russel Crowe is captured after a stagecoach robbery and Evans asks for the job of taking Wade to the 3:10 Train to Yuma so Wade can stand trial. The money Evans would get would help him keep his ranch.
Wade's gang is not too happy about their leader going to jail so they set off in pursuit of Evans to free their boss.
There is a lot of gunfighting and a sharpshooter with a very interesting rifle. There is an interesting scene where the sharpshooter is trying to get a shot at the station with his telescopic sight and the arriving train is casting a moving shadow that will prevent the man's shot. The frustration on the shooter's face is plain. A brilliant touch.
Wade is a very interesting character. He is a sympathetic character (in the literary sense, that is, the audience can relate to the character because he is not all bad, but has qualities the audience can relate to – his reading the Bible, drawing sketches, and having a philosophical bent.)
Evans is your typical Western hero, who does amazing things and has unbelievable courage and the determination to do the right thing. In a sense, he is a stock character as he does not change in any way as the film progresses. Wade, on the other hand, shows qualities that the audience probably will not expect.
One very satisfying part of the film is where the father proves himself to his son. But the death of the father (the hero) is not supposed to happen in Westerns. That it did happen is a tribute to the writer 's courage to not be predictable. Still, I do not like it when the hero is killed. (I didn’t like John Wayne being killed in The Cowboys, either.)
Wade killing his henchmen shows that Wade is not pure evil.
The scene where Wade turns against his gang and attempts to go voluntarily with Evans to get to the train station to get on the train may make the audience wonder why Wade is willing to go to prison. The twist in the film is that Wade knows he can escape from the prison. (Before they hang him, of course.)I have not seen the original so I will not make a comparison here. In a way I am glad I didn't as I get a perspective on this film unsullied by having seen the old one. Be that as it may, I recommend you buy this film to include in your western collection. I would put it up there on my shelf alongside my other classic westerns.
 del.icio.us 
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=16359&reviewer=228
originally posted: 04/16/09 07:21:09
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USA
07-Sep-2007 (R)
DVD: 08-Jan-2008
UK
14-Sep-2007
Australia
N/A
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