Movie Review: 3:10 to Yuma

I was all prepared this evening to write a bit about opportunity--maybe even something inspirational.  Alas, I am finding, at this late hour, I'm not quite up to it. 

So, let me tell you about a movie Christine and I escaped to see last weekend, 3:10 to Yuma.

Western is one of my favorite genres, particularly when it it's a well-produced flick.  3:10 was no exception. 

Russell Crowe plays a bad-arse killer, Ben Wade, who only reaches for his gun a couple of times in the movie, but when he does, it almost leaves you breathless.  He's ruthlessly efficient with his pistol, aka: "The  Hand of God."  One of the questions you find yourself trying to answer is whether this dyed-in-the-wool  robber-assassin has any good left in him.  (I'll let you decide after you see it for yourself.)

Christian Bale plays the role of a family man who has to make some really tough choices.  The ranch upon which he bet the last of his meager savings is not faring well due to drought.  He has a pretty wife and two sons.  The eldest is not sure his father is wholly a man--and in fact he is not, having lost a part of his leg in military service, much of his self-esteem with it. 

Bale's and Crowe's two characters converge on each other as a matter of fateful circumstance and their lives become intertwined.   The one-legged, struggling rancher finds himself in the undesirable position of being the only man (eventually) left to bring this unstoppable killer to justice, by making sure he travels the 40 miles (according to Google Maps) from Bisbee, AZ  to Contention for the 3:10 train to Yuma.   While they are traveling by horse, they are slowed in their progress by plenty of adversity, not the least of which is Ben Wade's ability to eliminate those in his way with more than just a gun.

The result is a movie that pulls you in as you attempt to decode what these two men are  really all about and how is this crazy merger of personalities and circumstances going to end.  Is Ben Wade really pure evil or, in the end, basically good?  Why is Bale's character apparently so Hell bent upon a path that could only mean certain death for himself and his eldest son?

Lace it all with some good ole Western dialogue and six shootin' action and you've got a movie which left at least yours truly happy he rode into town and hit the theater.