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Film Review
The Western is back
‘3:10 to Yuma’ showdown between good, evil
The Western has returned in the form of a certain Oscar contender. “3:10 to Yuma” (Lionsgate) is a masterful combination of superb acting, careful direction and exquisite cinematography.
With strong character development and even better character performances by the entire cast — Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, in particular — “3:10 to Yuma” plays as the best novel you’ve ever watched.
A remake of a 1957 Western film of the same title, “3:10 to Yuma” is a classic Western in its characters, content and thematic focus of good versus evil.
The film opens by showing the hardships of Arizona rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale) right before he runs into notorious outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe). The two men first meet when Evans wanders into Wade robbing a bank stagecoach. The result is an adventure in moral ambiguity.
Local authorities in the small town of Bisbee, Ariz., apprehend Wade and need to transport him to the train station — a day-and-a-half-long journey from Bisbee — where the 3:10 train will take him to Yuma to be imprisoned.
The journey is complicated by Wade’s gang, who vows to free its leader and Evans, a Civil War veteran with one leg, who agrees to help transport Wade for $200. His family, in the midst of a drought on his ranch, desperately needs the money.
On the journey, Evans and Wade come to know one another’s stories. The respect that develops between the two men — respect while still standing at the end of one another’s gun barrel — makes it hard to just see Wade as evil.
Wade’s gang complicates the final half mile to the train station — leaving Wade the option of escaping from Evans or cooperating for the sake of his captor. If Wade gets on the train to Yuma, Evans will be rewarded money that could save his family.
“3:10 to Yuma” never clearly delineates the good guys from the bad. There are Western assumptions viewers might make about the good and the bad, but the film doesn’t limit itself with those conventional classifications. Director James Mangold makes it complicated — he creates a film that a mature audience member must wrestle with for days after viewing.
While the characters themselves might be morally ambiguous, some of their actions — like murder — are not.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church makes it clear that human acts that are freely chosen can be morally evaluated, “They are either good or evil” (1749). The existence of original sin inclines man to evil although he may — in some aspects — still desire to be good.
“The whole life of men, both individual and social, shows itself to be a struggle, and a dramatic one, between good and evil, between light and darkness,” (1707) the Catechism states.
The light and darkness of that struggle rise and fall on the desert backdrop of “3:10 to Yuma.” Certain human acts are good or evil, but the acting man has both of these forces within him.
Although Wade certainly commits highly immoral acts, the subtle changes that occur in his character suggest that he finds, in some ways, redemption. While there is no indication Wade will not return to his vices, he makes a sacrifice of self for Evans.
These competing tendencies, of good and evil, of fall and redemption, complicate the characters of “3:10 to Yuma” and stand at the crux of its message.
In contrast to Wade, Evans’ character is less complicated. He is devoted to his family and lives a moral life that “bears witness to the dignity of the person” (1706). That devotion touches and transforms Wade.
The complicated messages in “3:10 to Yuma” required high-caliber acting and Crowe and Bale hit the mark. Watching two of this generation’s greatest actors play off one another makes “3:10 to Yuma” a film well worth seeing.
Violent, very bloody and morally convoluted, “3:10 for Yuma” is only appropriate for a mature adult audience that can give thoughtful consideration to the complicated battle of good vs. evil. It is not an easy film to watch and is an even harder one to truly understand, but it is certainly worth the fight.
Rebecca Bostic is a regular contributor to The Catholic Sun. Comments are welcome. Send e-mail to letters@catholicsun.org.
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