3:10 to Yuma

1957 Version        
Starring Glenn Ford and Van Helflin
Directed by Delmer Daves

2007 Version
Starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale
Directed by James Mangold

We are no longer a society that respects the old-fashioned western movie. In generations past, the strong, silent types were revered and idolized. Now, we don’t have heroes unless they blow something up or swear every other word.

Because of this, people in Hollywood have decided to re-write cinematic history by remaking classic movies and adding the edge that contemporary movie-goers come to expect. The 3:10 to Yuma pictures each encapsulate what is good and what is bad in each of the genres and eras.

Westerns are supposed to be stories of a time and a place where the rules of right and wrong were not laws written and debated by men, but codes of honor that were held by both the good and evil. Each side had their principles because, back then, that’s all there was. You did what you felt was best for you, your family, and the Lord, and nothing else really mattered. Some felt that meant killing and stealing while others thought that meant the opposite.

In the 1957 version, the Dan Evans and Ben Wade characters were diametric opposites in the good/evil alignment, but their common ground was their code. There was no chaos, no deviation from character or motivation, just the code. Some might think that’s poor character development when, in fact, we are all very basic and very plain people despite our best efforts. The two play a chess game of wills as one fights for his freedom while the other simply wants to do the right thing and make life better for his family. both have honor and never become a caricature of their way of life.

The remake, however, did not age well in 50years and, in order to get audiences to step up and take notice, they filled the script with cheesy one-liners, unnecessary gunfights and, of course, explosions. I love both Russell Crow and Christian Bale as actors, but neither could really breathe life into characters that ended up being so one-dimensionally brutal to one another that each other’s motivations seemed to be muddled. Was Ben Wade wanting just his freedom or did he want to just kill everyone? Was Dan Evans wanting to do the right thing, or just look good in the eyes of his oldest son or was he simply in it for the money?

There is a lost art of storytelling that needs to be reborn. Most of the 1957 version took place in a few places while the remake was all over the place, sacrificing some of the great dialogue for galloping horses and gunshots. The newer one was no longer a true Western; it was just some action movie set in the old west.

Most Valuable Actor: Glenn Ford as Ben Wade in the 1957 version. Where Russell Crowe’s character was much more brutal and vicious, Ford made the character what he needed to be: a charasmatic and gentle criminal. Ford almost made Wade civilized and charming which was the point. At the end, I felt the character of Ben Wade had actually grown as a person and was much more believeable than Crowe’s Wade who, even after appearing to learn something, still slaughtered six men in the street.