Once Upon A Time In The West

3:10 To Yuma (directed by James Mangold)

Christian Bale needs to take a break. Not only did he act his ass off in Werner Herzog's Rescue Dawn earlier this summer, but he does it again in 3:10 To Yuma, a remake of the 1957 film based on a short story by renowned author Elmore Leonard, who before shifting to crime novels was a master of the western genre.

Bale plays Arizona rancher Dan Evans, a man trying to scratch out a living in the post-Civil War doldrums with his wife (Gretchen Mol) and two kids (Logan Lerman and Benjamin Petry). When the opportunity comes along to escort infamous convict Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to the town of Contention, where Wade will board the 3:10 train to hell (aka Yuma) to be executed, Bale eagerly takes it as a way to support his needy family.

Wade's gang of outlaws poses a problem for the traverse to Contention, as does the dangerous terrain they're covering, which is closely guarded by Apache Indians. The leader of Wade's gang, sadistic Charlie Prince (the creepy Ben Foster) are willing to do anything and everything to ensure that Wade doesn't make it onto the fated Yuma train.

The film also has a good supporting cast, with Alan Tudyk (Firefly ) as the veterinarean-turned-doctor, a random cameo by Luke Wilson, and of course Peter Fonda, whose easy rider status is quickly diminished as a result of making a comment about Wade's mother. "Even bad men love their mommas," Crowe hastily replies.

Phedon Papamichael's cinematography does a good job with both the exterior and interior shots, focusing in particular on the character's eyes and well-lit rooms. There's the old saying that the eyes are a window into the soul, and in the case of Charlie Prince, it's made quite clear that he doesn't have one.

The western has long been due for a revival, and James Mangold (Walk The Line, Identity) does it justice here. It's a genre picture to be sure, but there is a hard-bitten quality to it that puts it above just another genre exercise. Mangold focuses in particular on the atypical relationship between Wade and Evans, who by the film's close turn out to have more respect for each other as men than either had imagined.