REVIEW: James Mangold’s 2007 western 3:10 to Yuma (now streaming on Netflix) wasn’t a remake of the 1957 film of the same name – brilliant though that film is.
Nope, this went back to the well, to the original short story by Elmore Leonard – and came back with a script that in some ways hews closer to the plot and the spirit of the famous author’s writing.
Leonard was a true American genius. His stories and novels have been adapted countless times – sometimes very well – into screenplays.
Get Shorty, Out Of Sight, Mr Majestyk, Rum Punch (adapted as Jackie Brown) and Be Cool are all based on Leonard originals. And 3:10 to Yuma has been one of the best – twice.
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Mangold secured the services of Christian Bale and Russell Crowe to play his leads. Bale is a landowner, desperate for cash after a drought and a corrupt lender have conspired to push him and his family to within days of defaulting on their loans and having to walk away from their land, bankrupt.
Meanwhile, Crowe is a notorious gang leader and stagecoach robber, who is taking down his 20-second score only a few miles from Bale’s farm.
When the two men’s paths intersect – Crowe is taken prisoner and Bale volunteers to be one of the men who will escort the bandit to a train that will take him to prison – the film kicks into gear.
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Russell Crowe is at “full-noise” in 3:10 to Yuma.
Mangold stages the action, the gunfights and the chases efficiently enough. But he also clearly understands the real genius and ngākau of Leonard’s storytelling.
Although Leonard could craft a scrap and a twist as well as anyone, what made his writing sing was the friendships and unlikely alliances that drove the plots. A Leonard story is one about two people who just can’t help but like each other, even when they are literally shooting guns at the other.
George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez made memorable chemistry in Out of Sight. And, in their own way, Bale and Crowe are just as good. Their two characters are clearly cut from the same cloth – and, but for a few interventions of fate could easily have each have finished up on either side of the law.
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Christian Bale plays rancher Dan Evans in 3:10 to Yuma.
With Bale and Crowe at full noise – and a support cast that includes Peter Fonda, Gretchen Mol and Ben Foster – Mangold hands in one of the decade’s very best Westerns.
Mangold had Cop Land and Walk The Line on his CV already – and would go onto make films such Logan and Ford v. Ferrari. But 3:10 to Yuma will always be one of his best.
3:10 to Yuma (R13, 122mins) is now available to stream on Netflix.
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