I redeemed some radio station points for tickets to an advance screening of 3:10 to Yuma on Wednesday. As far as I was concerned, it has Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, and great reviews so far, so I couldn’t go wrong.
It turns out that the movie is very good! The story is very character-driven, and both Russell Crowe and Christian Bale (fantastic actors) were up to the task of putting on their characters’ many layers, and portraying their changes over the course of the movie. I love movies like this, where the focus is on real people and real decisions they have to make in life, rather than stereotyped people and “decisions” that are obvious.
Besides the psychological drama, this movie also has some of the most exciting fight scenes I’ve seen in a western. The fights are messy and guns don’t always hit anything on their first shot, just like a real gunfight (or, maybe I should say, just like a gunfight in a multiplayer first-person shooter). I appreciate that.
I won’t give away the ending, except to say that I may have to watch it again to fully understand it. I think I enjoyed that part of the movie the least, but maybe someone will explain it properly to me one day.
