You take two of the greatest actors of modern American cinema, grab a slew of all-star performers all providing excellent performances, match it with the stylish and epic direction of James Mangold, and you have yourself “3:10 to Yuma” a remake of the great western film that’s a contender for one of my favorites of 2007, and damn near superior to its predecessor. Mangold’s film packs an abundance of quality and power with it and that’s due to the fantastic writing by the adapting screenwriters, who takes the simplistic yet original story and turns it something much more unique. It’s the story of a man trying to reclaim his dignity, a story about a man who is very well the devil reincarnated learning about respect, and the story of a young boy discovering that everything he thought he once knew now suddenly was all just a fraud. “3:10 to Yuma” brought with it the stylish marketing and appeal to the modern audiences, but don’t sell it short.

Mangold fills this with as much muck and grit as possible creating a sense of amoral terrain in which bandits and ne’er do wells lurk, with a few folks within the landscape struggling to keep a hold of their souls. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the original film, and I think it’s one of the more intense westerns I’ve ever seen, but the writers here tend to delve more heavily in darkness and redemption as well as struggling to keep your values in check in the face of utter temptation. The original merely touched on that as a plot point, but the screenplay here adjusts itself to become centered around the quest for wealth and respect. Crowe is fantastic as Glenn Ford’s successor in portraying Ben Wade. A spiritual man who views himself as a bit of a deity, Wade is undoubtedly charming and charismatic and he gets in well with everyone he comes across, even earning the sheer violent loyalty of his men. But underneath the dapper suits and smiles, he’s the devil who offers lust, greed, temptation, and seduction to many and values himself all but untouchable.

The antithesis is Dan Evans, a man who is about as low in the dirt as you can imagine. Bale is wonderful as usual playing off of Crowe with the same skill and raw power he injects into every character and never relents from keeping the character of Dan a valiant but small hero who simply just wants to earn back the pride he lost, and the respect life beat from him. His wife sees him with apathy, his oldest berates and shames him, and his only sense of himself he gains is from his sickly youngest son. The dichotomy between a man of wealth versus a man of common soil who battle over right and wrong come off well and both actors are a sheer powerful duo to watch onscreen. The truly stand out performance is from Ben Foster who continues to impress as a powerful actor with the ability to stand against folks like Crowe on-screen. “3:10 to Yuma” is only slightly superior to its predecessor, but as a standalone western it’s a fantastic action drama with wonderful performances, and a banner screenplay. It simply doesn’t disappoint.

I still very much enjoy the original, but this version from Mangold is no slouch as a bonafide masterpiece. It’s an excellent, intelligent, and complex story with incredible performances, and a pedigree cast you will not want to miss.

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