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Note: I have changed this review since I first wrote it, and reduced the film’s grade from a A to a B. Click here for an explanation.
Good news: The western is very much alive! The second film version of Elmore Leonard’s short story doesn’t feel like a neo-western, an anti-western, or a western parody. Most of it feels like a great, classic western, and, if it wasn’t for a wholly implausible third act, would stand a good chance of achieving classic status in future decades. Like all great westerns, it offers plenty of action and suspense, but is really about men, how they relate to each other, and the difficult moral choices that the frontier forces on them. Russell Crowe, as a notorious criminal, and Christian Bale, as a rancher desperate enough to take a very dangerous job, both bring to the film the right look, talent, charisma, and American accent. (Has anyone else noticed that this very American story stars an Aussie and a Welshman?) Most of 3:10 To Yuma is thoughtful and intelligent, and all of it is testosterone-pumping entertainment.