3:10 to Yuma
February 2008 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

This action-adventure western seems to me not so much a remake of the previous 1957 film, but a different version of the short story by Elmore Leonard. In it, Dan Evans (Christian Bale), a down-and-out rancher, takes on the job of escorting bad guy Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to the train station in order to put him on the 3:10 that will take him to prison. The only problem is that Wade’s gang, headed by psychopath Charlie Prince (Ben Foster) in the boss’s absence, is coming to town to bust him out. At the beginning Evans has support from the Pinkerton Agency and local law enforcement. He holes up in a hotel with his prisoner to wait for the appointed time. When the vicious desperados reach town before the train, his support complete dissolves and he’s left alone.

Crowe is very convincing as Wade. He’s a gentleman’s bandit on the surface. He dresses well, carries a sketchpad on which he draws local bird life as well as people, and he thumps the Bible a bit. But underneath that slick veneer, he’s a cold-blooded killer who gives no warning or quarter to his victims. You know all the movies you have seen where the bad guy could shoot the good guy and instead engages him in dialogue, the wait usually enabling his rescue? There is none of that here. With Ben Wade and Charlie Prince, it’s just point and squeeze the trigger. We’re shown that aspect of Wade’s character early on when he kills one of his own men in order to shoot a Pinkerton. One gets the feeling that both Wade and Prince would shoot someone just to relieve boredom.

Bale is equally strong as Evans, a young husband and father who is lame and has cooked up a story about how it happened in the Civil War. He’s battling with the local big wig who is about to take his ranch. His life seems one of controlled desperation. He and Crowe play cat and mouse through most of the movie as they size up one another. The scenes between the two crackle with tension, much of the characterization being achieved by facial expression rather than dialogue. The supporting roles are all handled well, especially Foster as arch killer Prince.

One of the exciting things about owning this film on DVD is that you can go back and replay the scenes between Crowe and Bale, catch the nuance, and realize what incredibly layered performances these two actors give. And fortunately the movie comes to DVD looking and sounding excellent. The picture has superb color balance and contrast. The outdoor scenes are given something of a golden glow, but the blue skies and parched land look quite accurate. Little details, like the stubbly beard that Crowe sports and the architectural detail of the town’s buildings, come through crisp and clean without any edge enhancement. The sound mix is just right most of the time. The gunshots echo in as realistic way. The surround channels help in this effect but are also on most of the time, helping to boost the feel of a particular location.

The extras are minimal but not bad. There are several short featurettes addressing particular details of production or the time period in which the film takes place. Along those lines, a featurette on posses and gangs is a pretty good, simplified history lesson. There are some very worthy deleted scenes and a trailer.

The Blu-ray edition looks about like the DVD except for its extra detail and color saturation, resulting in the illusion of more depth. It has a PCM 7.1 uncompressed audio track in addition to the same Dolby 5.1 Surround EX as the DVD, and it’s very realistic and natural. The Blu-ray version contains all the extras found on the DVD, but it adds an interview with author Elmore Leonard, a documentary on the building of the Transcontinental Railway, and a historical timeline of the West that allows you to pick a particular year and learn about the major events that occurred during that time.

The older version of 3:10 to Yuma has recently been remastered and is out on DVD. It makes for a fascinating study to see both versions, especially if you can view the earlier one in the context of the 1950s. Then each becomes a time capsule of the era in which it was produced while addressing an even earlier time when the myth of the West was being written.

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