After years of revisionist westerns and
post-modern westerns, seeing a western done straight seems almost
shocking. And
director James Mangold's remake of the 1957 film about Dan Evans
(Christian Bale) a dirt-poor farmer and family man who joins a rag-tag
posse to escort a captured outlaw Ben Wade (a never-more charismatic
Russell Crowe) on the long journey to the train to Yuma prison is about
as straight as they come.
Yet as the posse - which
includes bounty hunter Byron McElroy (Peter Foster), railroad
representative Grayson Butterfield (Dallas Roberts) and local vet Doc
Potter (Alan Tudyk) heads out, it doesn't take long for Wade's gang,
led by his kill-crazy henchman Charlie Prince (Ben Foster), to get on
their trail.
Soon the posse's numbers start to shrink,
but as the odds against them grow so does Dan's determination to get
Ben on that train. Soon his stubborn refusal to simply
surrender
ceases to be a straight-forward plot device (after all, if he gives in
the movie ends) and becomes something much deeper.
It's
the kind of "one man against the odds" plot that usually falls flat,
but here it really works: if Dan gives up then there really is no hope
for the future of anyone in the lawless west.
While Mangold
does a fine job of staging the numerous action sequences, and Bale's
performance as a battered man with a core of iron is quietly
compelling, it's Crowe's electrifying turn as the gang leader that
powers this film.
Honourable, murderous, and as slyly tempting
as any devil, his performance would earn a more media-friendly actor a
sack of awards. This gripping adventure isn't just a great western;
it's a great film.
4 out
of 5
3:10 To
Yuma Australian
release: 31st January, 2008
Cast: Russell Crowe,
Christian Bale, Peter Fonda, Gretchen Mol, Ben Foster Director: James Mangold
Website:Click
here.
