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'Yuma' succeeds as heated remake
By: DAN BENNETT - Staff Writer | ∞
A- "3:10 to Yuma"
Starring: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Ben Foster, Peter Fonda
Director: James Mangold
Studio: Lions Gate Films
Rated: R (for violence and some language)
Running time: 117 minutes
Hot and dusty, but full of energy, "3:10 to Yuma" is an honorable remake of the 1957 film of the same name.
The earlier film, starring Van Heflin and Glenn Ford ---- and based on an Elmore Leonard short story ---- was a more enclosed tale of difficult choices and desperation. The new version, with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, takes the action into the wide open and still-wild West of the Arizona desert in the late 1800s. Crowe plays Ben Wade, a notorious outlaw and bank robber whose gang takes off with a large stash after ambushing a stagecoach.
A series of events eventually finds Wade in the temporary custody of a small group of men seeking to deliver him to the authorities. Among those men is the limping Civil War veteran Dan Evans (Christian Bale), a rancher down on his luck. As the men make the long trek to Yuma to place Wade on a prison train, Evans and Wade form an uneasy and unlikely bond, as they both learn about each other and what brought them to their present places in life.
This bonding happens even as Wade escapes and is recaptured, as the group journeys through dangerous tribal territory and as Wade's gang conducts a bloody, desperate search to retrieve their boss. By the time everybody reaches Yuma, much has transpired, and Evans must now take the initiative to deliver Wade to the train, at considerable peril, or simply let him go. His decisions speak to where he's been in his life and what sort of legacy he wishes to leave.
"3:10 to Yuma" is a throwback Western in its presentation of big moral themes under big skies on barren land, but modern in its electric action scenes. With strong dialogue, good chemistry between its talented lead actors and an overall look and feel so different from what we usually see (though parallels with "Unforgiven" are applicable), "3:10 to Yuma" travels well.
A- "3:10 to Yuma"
Starring: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Ben Foster, Peter Fonda
Director: James Mangold
Studio: Lions Gate Films
Rated: R (for violence and some language)
Running time: 117 minutes
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