310 to Yuma

When Tuffy P suggested we go see 310 to Yuma, I was torn - love westerns, don't love Russell Crowe. Love of westerns won out. I may or may not have seen the original from the 50s. I can't recall it, so I can't compare the two versions. I will say off the top that this is a top-rate oater, and I will admit off the top that Mr. Crowe did a fantastic job.

The film is set in post-civil war America. The key protagonists are a dirt-poor rancher, trying to scratch a living out of an unforgiving west - played by Christian Bale, and a charming but bad-ass outlaw, known for taking what he wants when he wants it - played by Russell Crowe. They are thrown together as the rancher, in an attempt to save his ranch from sharks who are going to sell it out from under him to make way for the railroad, joins a group escoring Crowe to the town of Contention, where they are to put him on the 310 train to Yuma, where prison and the noose awaits.

310 to Yuma struck me as being an old-school western - civilization coming to the west, war is over, characters trying to find a way to live in a changing world. We learn that the so-called good guys - the Pinkerton people (the Pinks) and the railroad, may not be all that good at all, and the Crowe character, bad-ass as he might be, is revealed to have a morality, albeit a much different one than the rancher.

On the 5-fish anchovy rating scale, I give this one a giant case of salties. Excellent film.