View the trailer...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhsnAt9Qd7Y
As of late, the release of westerns, films set in the world of gunslinging outlaws and lawmen, saloons and the range, has been so infrequent the genre has been pronounced dead. But is it? If every upcoming western is as good as director James Mangold's 3:10 to Yuma (or close), I hope not. The film stars Russell Crowe as Ben Wade, a recently-captured outlaw who terrorized the Southern Railroad, and Christian Bale as Dan Evans, a drought-plagued rancher desperate to bring him to justice for the reward. Evans' mission to deliver Wade to Contention City, Arizona where the titular locomotive waits (complicated by Wade's still-free band of thieves and murderers) becomes a brutal and unpredictable ride towards fate.
James Mangold is not interested in reinventing the genre or its epic mythos. Instead, he simply concentrates on shooting this story as best he can. This results in a film which never lapses into pretentious pondering, but features rip-roaring, gut-wrenching action sequences filled with suspense and drama and a cast of characters who are colorful and fascinating, none more so than Ben Wade and Dan Wades. The evolution of their relationship, which begins as captive and captor, is riveting and poignant. Both Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are at the top of their game and deliver outstanding perforances. The former is especially impressive in his essaying of charisma belying deadly intensity.
All in all, 3:10 to Yuma is the best film I have seen this year (at least thus far). It's a perfect example of the separate elements, from acting to cinematography to directing to editing to musical scoring to screenwriting, being perfect and coming together to form a whole which is very, very easy to recommend.
