3:10 to Yuma

If you're into Westerns I think you'll like this movie. If you're not into Westerns, you might still like this movie. I've always thought of myself as a big fan of the Western genre. I think when push comes to shove I'm really just a big fan of Clint Eastwood. It's always fun to see good vs bad...and even the ugly sometimes. One of my fellow co-workers is considered an expert on the Western genre. He even has a book titled Westerns and American Culture, 1930-1955. This guy knows his stuff. One day I was talking to him about movies and to my horror the man hates Spaghetti Westerns and he HATES Clint Eastwood. The guy loves John Wayne. To me, John Wayne is the Jackie Chan of Kung Fu movies. If you couldn't tell, I'm more partial to the likes of Jet Li and Bruce Lee. Anyways, I've kind of guessed that my co-worker isn't a fan of the bad guys winning, little character development and little morality. Well, I think he just might like this movie because it's not lacking in those areas. I haven't seen the original, but I read that it has a different ending. I'll have to Netflix-it and see what I think. If you're not familiar with the plot, it's about a man who lost most of one leg in the Civil War and is trying to earn some money so his family doesn't lose their land to the railroad. In order to earn $200, he volunteers to help escort a hardened criminal to a train station to put that man on the 3:10pm train to Yuma Prison. I'm sure you can guess that everything doesn't really just run smoothly. What kind of movies do? This terrible menace to society starts off by being all nice and polite. He even tries to befriend almost everybody. Don't let him fool you though, he's still a cold-blooded murderer. However, he doesn't just kill on a whim. He does things for a reason. On the way to the train, the first man we see Ben Wade kill pretty much deserved it. In fact, before this little trip, he had recently burned down Dan Evans, the volunteer's, barn. It was still a smoking pile of timbers when the group left town. Ben figured this guy deserved it, and he did. As the group treks across the open country, more and more of them don't make it to the end, but you see a friendship growing between Ben and Dan. This is where the character development happens. Dan is a good man, plain and simple. Dan does the right things for the right reasons. Ben notices he doesn't belong on this trip. Dan has a family to take care of and not much to take care of them with. Ben knows that Dan is just doing what he can to take care of his wife and kids. I think that's why you start to see a deep respect grow between them. I'm not going to tell much more about what happens because I can't give too much away. So you may be wondering who's in this. Ben is played by Russell Crowe. Personally, I can't think of a single movie this man has been in that I didn't like. Dan is played by Christian Bale. Some other highlights are Ben Foster, Alan Tudyk, and Peter Fonda and Luke Wilson. Definitely a great group of actors. I'm continually impressed by Crowe, Bale and Foster in just about everything they do. I'm so glad I saw this in the theater. It was an experience worth every dollar I paid to see it. This will be making its way into my top 10 for the year. I highly suggest you give it a chance if you are able.