The 3:10 to Yuma 2007

     This film is based on a short story by Elmore Leonard.  Rancher Dan Evans heads into Bisbee to clear up issues concerning the sale of his land.  Dan witnesses the closing events of a stagecoach robbery led by famed outlaw Ben Wade.  Shortly thereafter, Wade is captured by the law in Bisbee and Evans finds himself as one of the escorts.  He will take Wade to the 3:10 to Yuma train in Contention for a reward of $200.  Evans' effort to take Wade to the station is in part an effort to save his land but also part of an inner battle.  He wants to show that he can be more than just a naive rancher in the eyes of his impetuous and gun slinging son William Evans.  The transport to Contention is hazardous and filled with ambushes by Indians, pursuits by Wade's vengeful gang and Wade's own conniving and surreptitious demeanor that makes the ride all the more intense.

     This western stars Russell Crowe and Christian Bale and both of these actors will appeal to teens.  It is a remake of a 1957 film with Glenn Ford film.  This new version has added plenty of shoot-outs and bloodshed for 21st-century audiences.  But, the bloody scenes are counterbalanced by a lot of conversation between the outlaw and his captors.  One of the characters is a slightly rebellious teenager and for the most part he is ashamed of his father.  There's one brief love scene, one bar scene and some language.  5* (I liked this movie)

122 min, Action directed by James Mangold and written by Halstead Welles, Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, Elmore Leonard with Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Logan Lerman, Dallas Roberts, Ben Foster, Peter Fonda, Vinessa Shaw, Alan Tudyk, Luce Rains, Gretchen Mol, Lennie Loftin, Rio Alexander, Johnny Whitworth, Shawn Howell, Pat Ricotti, Tamon Frank.

Note:  Imdb 7.7 out of 10 with 287,198 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes, 89% with 223 critics 86% with 394,444 audience scores, Roger Ebert 4*, The Guardian 3* out of 5* Peter Bradshaw, empireonline 3* out of 5* William Thomas, Metacritic 76 out of 100 with 37 critic reviews, 7.3 out of 10 with 468 user scores, Amazon 4.7* out of 5* with 3722 reviews, Common Sense Media Sandie Angulo Chen 4* out of 5*, age 15+, 3* sex, language, drinking, drugs & smoking 5* violence, The Guardian 3* out of 5* Peter Bradshaw,

Special Note:  The weekend before the shooting was scheduled to wrap, a freak storm dumped nearly two feet of snow on the drought plagued town.  Laborers shoveled the snow from the buildings' balconies and roofs and distributed eighty-nine dump trucks worth of dry soil on the ground.  Backhoes created an eight foot tall rampart of snow just beyond camera sight lines for the remaining six days of shooting.  Warned about the pain of surgery, Byron McElroy (Peter Fonda) tells Doc Potter (Alan Tudyk) that it's not the first time he's been shot.  In real life, Peter Fonda accidentally shot himself in the stomach when he was ten.  Russell Crowe was director James Mangold’s first choice for the role of Ben Wade.  Tom Cruise dropped out of talks for the film, putting it into turn around and it was the casting of Crowe that got the production back up and running.

Mistakes:  During the stagecoach robbery, modern tire tracks can be seen in the dirt in a few shots.  The song that Ben Wade sings, "they're gonna hang me in the morning..." is called The Arizona Killer and dates from 1995.  It is a version of an older song, The Tennessee Killer but even the older version was unknown before 1942.  There are dialogue references to "gunslingers," a term which did not exist until the 1920s.  Author Glendon Swarthout says at the time of the film such men would have been referred to as "shootists," "pistoleers," or simply "gunmen."