3:10 to Yuma (1957)

How timely! Just as we review 3:10 to Yuma, some big movie studio puts out a remake in 2007. We aren’t sure why they’d bother to “improve” on the respectable original. Maybe they thought it needed to be spiced up: throw in plenty of crudities and now we’ve made a modern Film with a capital “F.” Add Russell Crowe, some guns, lots of blood, and more plot twists and we’ve got ourselves a multi-million dollar product. Well, we say, there’s no need to go to the theaters and add to the studio’s coffers. Just rent the 1957 version instead.

Why, you ask? There’s plenty of decency and good-heartedness in this morality tale. The plot is fairly simple. The movie opens with the notorious Ben Wade gang robbing a stagecoach and commiting murder. They waltz cockily into and out of a nearby town, but Wade himself makes a mistake by remaining in town to pursue a female. The good townsmen realize this, and stumble into capturing Wade. Worried about his gang, they make a plan: divert the gang while two of them take Wade to Contention City, where a train will appear at 3:10. Dan Evans, a farmer in financial straits, volunteers for this job, mostly because he needs the $200 reward money due to a long recent draught. The bulk of the movie is a psychological showdown between Evans and his captive Wade. Wade is a sweet-talker, a real tempter like the devil, and given Evans’ financial vulnerability, Evans can be easily tempted. Will Evans give in to Wade’s bribes? Will Wade’s gang find Wade before the 3:10 train? If they do, how will Evans get out of that predicament by himself? The morality tale part of 3:10 to Yuma is the interplay between Evans and Wade. Evans is a decent family man with a wife and two boys, and Wade is an outlaw without scruples. Each, at times, leans towards becoming like the other. The real question is, who will prevail and will he do so honorably or not?

In many ways, this is a better Western than the John Ford/Howard Hawkes fare that stereotypically defines what “The Western” is. There’s no Federalist political moral, as in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. There’s no apathy towards violence or revenge, as in every Clint Eastwood movie. There are also fittingly hilarious moments (someone had fun creating oddball lines in this script), as when the townsmen are deciding who will take Wade to the 3:10 train.

Marshal: Do I have two volunteers?
Member of posse #1: We gotta know what we’re gettin’ ourselves into.
Member of posse #2: Sure… might not be safe.
Marshal: Safe! Who knows what’s safe? I knew a man dropped dead from lookin’ at his wife. My own grandmother fought the Indians for sixty years… then choked to death on lemon pie. Do I have two volunteers?

And frankly, the lead actors (Glenn Ford and Van Helfen) fit their characters perfectly, so much so that we don’t think Russell Crowe could do a better job. The movie’s lone problem is poor editing and an abominable soundtrack. The movie’s pacing isn’t always great–it needs 15 minutes cut from it–and someone needs to write a new score that doesn’t radically exaggerate emotional tensions like all early Western soundtracks do. We would prefer that a movie studio would’ve performed these two simple tasks, instead of spending millions on a crude remake. That’s the way to turn 3:10 to Yuma into a A+ Film.

Entertainment: 5
Intelligence: 6
Morality: 10