Review of 3:10 to Yuma (2007) by Cameron S — 23 Aug 2011

After 'The Proposition' I decided to watch another western. The closest one to hand was '3:10 to Yuma', I put it in not expecting much but 2 hours later I was very pleasently pleased.

First of all '3:10 to Yuma' is better then 'The Proposition', although just as slow towards the begininning '3:10 to Yuma' has a more exciting premise and was more gripping. As well as being a better story '3:10 to Yuma' also has better characters, especially Russel Crowe's character, who is a charasmatic killer who needs to be transported to a train station by a group of police and do-gooders, one of whom is Christian Bale. I have never really been a big fan of Bale, It's not that I think he can't act (I like his films) it's just that he comes across as a bit of a prick, after '3:10 to Yuma' I feel a bit different about the subject though (maybe it's because his character is so nice?).

Another aspect of the story revolves around Bale's family, his son in particular who believes his fater isn't capable of anything and decides to sneak along behind his father on his journey. Throughout the film you discover how Bale's son is very much like Crowe's character and this makes for an intersting dynamic.

The film also follows Crowe's old gang who are trying to rescue him and reeking havok at the same time, while this is going on though Crowe's character develops an unlikely connection to Bale's which impacts the rest of the film immensely.

The end of the film starts of as just a big shootout while Crowe's gang try to rescue him, it turns into something so much better then that, it was like a 'Devil's Rejects' moment and was extremely enjoyable to watch, overall it really wraps up the film nicely.'3:10 to Yuma' is probably the most enjoyable western I have seen to date, it generally surprised me.