ManCaveMovies: 3:10 to Yuma

A friend has been on me to see “3:10 to Yuma,” but I’ve been reluctant. Granted, this friend has great taste in all things, but a Western starring Christian Bale and Russel Crowe? “Could be cool but, meh, I’ll pass.” I’m not a big movie watcher, Bale’s batman voice was ridiculously bad, and the last Western I saw was “High Noon” for a college class on the HUAC “Hollywood on Trial” hearings, so I was none too interested in this here Yuma rhubarb.

Well I finally got to watching it, and it was damn good. A little long, with a few boring parts, but overall a very exciting and surprisingly human movie worth checking out if you have two free hours, a six-shooter and a horse named Trigger (method man reference).

hyah! hyah!

In this lil’ homespun prairie tale Russel Crowe  plays a notorious outlaw named Ben Wade. In an early scene Mr. Wade shows that he is one badass bad man: taking down and robbing a heavily-armed stagecoach. It’s certifiably gangsta watching Wade lead 20+ bandits in a wreckless and systematic horseback assault. And apparently they had begun making big ass machine guns in the late 1800′s.

And awesome. Got it: Wade is powerful and dangerous but with a dark sense of humor and detached cockiness about his profession. An O.G. before the west coast was the West Coast. Man in black. Ok, ok…

We also meet Dan Evans (Christian Bale), a small-time rancher down on his luck who’s worried about being able to support his family. His teenage son is questioning his ability to save their land from being sold (and keep the family from starving).

Instantly you feel for Evans and his struggle to be respected as a man. Despite his hard work and faith, a spell of droughts has made him unable to make the land produce. To make matters worse, his land is being sold out from under him for a new railroad. Evans is the good guy that the world seems set against.

And he’s missing a leg! On top of everything, Dan Evans limps around on a wooden leg: the reward for serving as a sharpshooter in the Civil War (he fought for the North, because we’re supposed to like him).

Evans is in town trying to keep his land from being sold. It’s doesn’t look good, until a lucrative and dangerous opportunity arises…

Long story short: Wade gets busted and Evans is offered a whopping $200 (about $5K in today’s money) to help transport him to a nearby town to put him on…the 3:10 train to Yuma for his trial. And thus the movie begins…

I won’t spoil it any more than I already have, but Evans has to contend with Indian-held territory, Wade’s crew of bandits, and the cowardice of the men around him in his effort to finish the job and collect the money that can change his life. Evans’ son gets into the action, which brings out the father-son drama set-up early in the movie too.

They could’ve fallen into cliches, but they give the characters enough depth and personality to keep things interesting. The action was well-done and well-setup, the old timey guns and lingo were fun, and hell, its a Western! There’s something so foreign and familiar about that wild, manly world raging as the taming (enslaving?) technology of civilization ever-encroaches, it almost feels like a place in every guy’s subconscious.

As I write this, it dawns on me why we romanticize The Wild West like we do any other era/place when Men Were Men.

From the look of “3:10 to Yuma,” the brutal honesty and plainness of the outlaws’ dealings don’t seem so bad next to the deliberate deceptions of modernity’s false civility and applies-according-to-wealth rule of law. Whether it’s bandits divying up a robbery or big developers usurping land from The Little Guy In A Tight Spot, the only difference is their honesty about “every man being for himself.” At least with a bandit you had no illusions about his intentions. Everyman for himself, high noon indeed.

Digression aside, I give “3:10 to Yuma” 7.5 (of 10) gold sheriff stars slapped on a saloon bartop. It has social, familial and individual themes that reward you for looking past the rootin tootin gunplay, which is undoubtedly the star of this very good show.

BONUS: “yeah in saloons we drink Boone’s and battle goons till high noon” – a favorite line from l. boogie!