3:10 to Yuma

Seen on 22-7-2009 - A Netflix dvd

Cast: Russell Crowe (Ben Wade), Christian Bale (Dan Evans)
Dir.: James Mangold ("Walk the Line," "Identity," "Girl Interrupted,")
Original: Based on a story by Elmor Leonard
Cast in a Western genre, this movie falls short of reaching the heights of an Eastwooder ("The Unforgiven") which used to be essentially like a morality play castigating the lawless anarchy of the frontier and the thugs and outlaws who reigned the day.
Dan Evans, the rancher in Arizona loses his leg in Civil War and is burdened with debt. Badly needing money to redeem his ranch, he enlists for $200 to join a small posse of men who dare to escort the dreaded outlaw, Ben Wade to the remote rail station and put him on the train to the prison in Yuma where he would be hanged by law. But the group disintegrates along the way in course of attacks from Ben Wade's gang who try to get him freed until the end. Incidentally Ben Wade turns out to be a Bible quoting artist who reads, draws, philosophizes and who, after all, is not such a bad man; he is impressed with Dan's nobility of purpose, his attachment to his family, and his steadfast devotion to his duty against the irresistible offer of $1000 if he, like the others of his group, only allows Ben Wade to go. Now, reaching the rail station, surrounded by armed men, Ben Wade not only saves the life of Dan but, against the ruthless attacks of his gang to free him, he even follows him to the train. He could have easily escaped to freedom in the last scene of relentless gun-fire by his men and other by hired locals, but he simply plays the ball with Dan and fulfills his sense of duty by jumping on to the train himself while Dan himself is hit in the shooting. What's surprising, however, is that Ben Wade even kills his men who have risked their all to free him before he embarks the train. His embarkation of the train, however, is only a token tribute to dying Dan, because in the last scene, he whistles to his horse to follow the moving train so he could get away.
I couldn't take the boy-scout morality of the ruthless thug used to killing people mercilessly. To me the movie seems to lapse into sentimentality by showing such a human outlaw.