3:10 To Yuma (2007)

"The best western since Unforgiven!  Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle
"...a glorious, thrilling throwback that never sacrifices its solid roots in the western genre...[and] actually improves on the original.  Connie Ogle, Miami Herald
"...sensational, studied characterizations, brilliant pacing...and blistering action.  K.J. Doughton, Film Threat
"James Mangold directs it with such energy and passion that it's as if he didn't know it's all been done before.  Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"The rousing new Western 3:10 to Yuma has the sweep of an epic and the economy of a stopwatch.  Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun

Editor's Note Based on the Elmore Leonard story, 3:10 TO YUMA is a riveting remake of the 1957 classic Western. It's the story of Dan Evans (Christian Bale), a down-and-out rancher who lost his leg in the Civil War. With a wife and two sons, he is struggling to put food on the table, and unable to make payments on his land. When the notorious gunman Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) is apprehended nearby, a few local men are needed to escort him to the town of Contention so he can be put on the 3:10 train to Yuma Prison. Few will volunteer for the job, as they know that Wade's ruthless gang will follow them, but Evans sees an opportunity to make some fast cash, and offers to go in exchange for $200. The small team of men set off, and are later joined by Evans's young son William (Logan Lerman), who has run away from home to join them. What follows is a race against time, as the group tries to get to Yuma without the clever and dangerous Wade outsmarting them. Crowe is fantastic as the smooth-talking gunman, and Bale delivers a moving performance as the weary-eyed Evans. The two men are perfect foils for each other. Wade is the infamous gunman, living the high life on the wrong side of the law, while Evans, who has struggled to lead an honest life, has only faced one hardship after another. It is a classic tale of good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, and yet, by the story's end, it becomes harder to separate the good guys from the bad. As the clock|ticks down, the film builds to an emotional nail-biter of an ending, reminiscent of BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID.

	Ben Foster
	Christian Bale
	Dallas Roberts
	Gretchen Mol
	Luce Rains
	Peter Fonda
	Russell Crowe
	Vinessa Shaw
	Andrew Menzies - Production Designer
	Cathy Konrad - Producer
	Derek Haas, et. al. - Screenplay
	Elmore Leonard - Based On Short Story By
	Greg Berry - Art Director
	James Mangold - Director
	Lynwood Spinks - Executive Producer
	Marco Beltrami - Original Music By
	Michael McCusker - Editor
	Phedon Papamichael - Cinematographer

Entertainment Weekly
"[A] sturdy and enjoyable remake....Director James Mangold amps up the mayhem, going for his version of a Peckinpah frenzy." 09/07/2007 57

New York Times
"Mr. Crowe and Mr. Bale both do excellent work....The action sequences in 3:10 TO YUMA are effective and coherent." 09/07/2007 p.E8

USA Today
3 stars out of 4 -- "3:10 TO YUMA captures a potent sense of the Old West with its multidimensional raw performances and captivating final shoot-out sequence." 09/07/2007 p.8E

Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "Bale is excellent, playing a hero unmanned by his amputation and eager to prove himself....The film's secondary characters are memorably drawn too..." 10/01/2007 p.60

Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 4 -- "Ben Foster is a nutso wonder...and shout-outs to Peter Fonda as a bounty hunter and Logan Lerman as Dan's needling teen son....Mangold brings it home." 09/20/2007 p.101

Uncut
4 stars out of 5 -- "The ever-improving Bale matches Crowe scene for scene, and his portrayal of a proud man devising the only possible escape from his sea of troubles is genuinely moving." 10/01/2007 p.128

Empire
3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]his is Crowe's movie. He invests Wade with a callous streak...but also flashes of humanity..." 10/01/2007 p.48

Sight and Sound
"[A] classical piece of storytelling....All the old archetypes and oppositions are here. What Mangrove proves is that when they are tackled with passion and conviction, they seem as fresh as ever." 11/01/2007 p.80

Los Angeles Times
"Mangold has brought welcome intensity to the project, giving 3:10 TO YUMA a visceral, immediate quality that makes it all realistic and mythic all at the same time." 09/07/2007

Film Comment
"James Mangold's mixture is physical and sensuous in the modern manner, playing on extreme tonalities in both the landscape and the violence..." 01/01/2008 p.75

Ultimate DVD
5 stars out of 5 -- "A magnificent Western....It drips with understated menace and tension and explores three-dimensional characters that are painted in shades of grey..." 05/01/2008 p.80

ReelViews 8 of 10
It has been more than 35 years since the Western was a popular genre but, when one is well-made, it can still arrest the attention and transport the viewer to another place and time. Of course, few modern Westerns take the simplistic view of cowboys/good-Indians/bad; we have come beyond that. 3:10 to Yuma is one of those complex films that twists morality and toys with the notion of the outlaw as a folk hero. It's modern in its perspectives and approach - even though it's based on a staid 50-year-old original (which, in turn, was adapted from an Elmore Leonard short story)...This isn't director Mangold's first genre effort, although it is his first Western. True to form, however, the action is secondary to character development and the highlighting of moral dilemmas. That's not to say the action isn't well choreographed. The 30-minute finale, which includes a tense stand-off with Ben's gang, is masterfully executed. It's perfectly paced, suspenseful, and ends in a way that's both appropriate and satisfying. Watching a movie like this, I can't help but wish that the Western would come back into favor again. We can use more productions like this. - James Berardinelli

Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
James Mangold's "3:10 to Yuma" restores the wounded heart of the Western and rescues it from the morass of pointless violence. The Western in its glory days was often a morality play, a story about humanist values penetrating the lawless anarchy of the frontier. It still follows that tradition in films like Eastwood's "The Unforgiven," but the audience's appetite for morality plays and Westerns seems to be fading. Here the quality of the acting, and the thought behind the film, make it seem like a vanguard of something new, even though it's a remake of a good movie 50 years old...James Mangold first came into view with an extraordinary movie named "Heavy" (1995). His "Walk the Line" (2005) won an Oscar for Reese Witherspoon. To remake "3:10 to Yuma" seems an odd choice after such other modern films as "Girl, Interrupted," but the movie itself proves he had a good reason for choosing it. In hard times, Americans have often turned to the Western to reset their compasses. In very hard times, it takes a very good Western. Attend well to Ben Wade's last words in this movie, and who he says them to, and why. - Roger Ebert