by M.G. Wood

© 2007 Lionsgate

Release Date: September 7th, 2007Studio: LionsgateGenre: WesternMPAA Rating: RRuntime: 117 minutes

Unwritten rules: after Labor Day, summer’s over, and you can’t wear white. Another, the summer movie season is over, and you can’t wear white. Cowboy rule: bad guys wear black, and never wear white.

So, I suppose it’s against the rules for me to proclaim 3:10 TO YUMA the best movie of the summer (just missed the summer season by a week). Which means it is the frontrunner for the fall? Or dare I say the best movie of the year?

What makes a great Western? I have no idea. But, I know one when I see one: MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, RIO BRAVO, THE WILD BUNCH, UNFORGIVEN. What do these films have in common? Simple stories and complex characters. Beautiful American landscapes and violence.

The simple story: a struggling farmer (Christian Bale) volunteers to transport a ruthless criminal (Russell Crowe) to a train station in a neighboring town to catch the 3:10 to Yuma. The complex characters: Dan Evans (Bale), a Civil War hero according to his son, moved his family to a barren farm to save his youngest from the anguish of consumption, only to have his marriage suffer from the economic strain, thus leading to his desperate desire to take on an apparent suicide mission. While Ben Wade (Crowe) has a slower, more subtle character development, thereby making his story arc all the more surprising in the end.

Based on an early short story by the great pulp novelist Elmore Leonard, screenwriters Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, and Halsted Welles do a masterful job of juxtaposing fast-paced action sequences with insightful, philosophical dialogue. James Mangold (WALK THE LINE) does what any good director would do: he sets up the camera, and walks away; giving us the pleasure of watching two of the most charismatic actors in modern film (Bale and Crowe) do their work.

No other film genre is as perfectly suited to giving us gorgeous panoramas, awesome views of the American landscape, and breath-taking photography than the Western. And it must be a dream for any cinematographer to land a Western gig. For 3:10 TO YUMA, Greek cinematographer Phedon Papamichael is the lucky one. And it would be silly to assume that anyone could describe the beautiful shots Mr. Papamichael frames, suffice it to say, just when you think there are no new ways to shoot the American west, Mr. Papamichael shows you something remarkable. Lest we forget the amazing photography Mr. Papamichael gave us in SIDEWAYS (2004).

The expression “riding off into the sunset” came from the grand tradition in the Western of having it’s hero poignantly exit the landscape having made sure everything is right with world. And if we’ve learned anything from the evolution of the Western, it’s that “hero” is a relative term, and that all is never truly right with the world.

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