3:10 to Yuma - 8/10
Seeing this after Shoot 'Em Up was like getting punched in the gut and throwing up a crappy meal one night, and eating at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse the next.
It was almost the perfect companion piece. Leaving SEU I felt disgusted. Why do people feel the need to create a ridiculous, horrible script as an excuse to film 80 minutes of over-the-top action? Since when has that ever been a legitimate why of creating an action film? 3:10 to Yuma does everything right that Shoot Em Up did wrong (which is just about everything...).
Here, we have a characer-driven narritive, paced expertly, with just the right balance of suspence and action. When the characters aren't shooting at each other, they're quietly examining one another, figuring out the best way to gain or maintain the upper hand. And when they are speaking, it's always carefully crafted dialog that slowly exposes something new about the character's psyche.
Speaking of characters, Ben Wade just might be my favorite Russel Crowe incarnation to date. He's ruthless, sly, and always puts on the facade of a man who knows exactly what's about to happen before anyone else has a clue, even when he doesn't. But he's also a good man, probably the only one of his "posse" with a shred of honor or real respect. This latter quality comes out in every moment Wade shares with Dan, the washed up, broke rancher played to a "t' by the ever-astounding Christian Bale. Dan has lost the respect of his son and his wife, and uses the situation with Wade as a manner of not only solving his financial troubles, but of redeeming himself in the eyes of his family.
The highlights of the film come in these tense and enthralling interactions between our two main characters, as we watch both men evolve and grow in ways we might not have originally expected. This is your classic morality play. Good and Evil are clearly defined, but the manifestations might not be exactly what you expect.
But this isn't just a character-study (though it succeeds moreso as such). Yuma is a classic actioner, and features all the western staples from horse-riding, stage-coach raids, bounty hunters (Peter Fonda in great form), stereotypically brutal Apache Indians, men throwing badges at one another, barns being lit on fire, and your classic pistol dual (though again, it's definitely not what you expect).
So no, there aren't nearly as many bullets fired, or guys shot in this film as there were in Shoot 'Em Up. But for every 1 second of action in Yuma to every 10 seconds of action in Shoot 'Em Up, Yuma delivered quadrouple the excitement and satisfaction. This is how you make a bad-ass action movie, folks. Take note. Because unless you have characters and situations that can truly engage you, the most frantic gunfights in the world aren't going to illicit a single genuine thrill.
All that said, Yuma isn't the perfect film. It isn't even the perfect Western. It plays it a little too close to the traditions here and there, and Mangold doesn't quite deliver the caliber of character or phylosophical depth you'll find in the best period films out there [hopefully we can look forward to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford later this month for such an experience, along with Richard Deakins' remarkably beautiful cinematography]. Yuma isn't the best-looking film out there, and it isn't quite one of the most riveting action flicks I've ever seen [Hell, it likely won't even be the best Western we see this year, especially if you count No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood], but it's a remarkably successfull film on all fronts, and sure as hell kicked off the fall season with a thunderous bang, and a bang, and a bang, and a bang bang bang...
