3:10 to Yuma brings the West back to the big screen

It seemed the Western was dead, as though the dry, dreary landscape of the Wild West wouldn't yield itself to movies anymore. Like water evaporating under the hot desert sun, it seemed true classics like Unforgiven and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were memories of a past art form. But a storm has brought rain back to the dry West. That storm is 3:10 to Yuma.

3:10 to Yuma, a remake of the 1957 film starring Glen Ford, revolves around the characters Ben Wade and Dan Evans. It follows in the footsteps of Unforgiven with a broken-down hero and a villain that makes you smile.

Wade, played by Russell Crowe (Gladiator), leads a gang of outlaws. Sheriffs arrest Wade after he robs a carriage, and volunteers are asked to escort Wade to the nearest train to a Yuma prison.

Evans, played by Christian Bale (Batman Begins), joins up to escort Wade because he needs the money. He lost a leg in the Civil War, his farm is dying, his barn burnt down and his family has lost faith in him.

"I'm tired," explains Evans to his wife. "I'm tired of seeing my boys go hungry, of the way they look at me, of the way you don't."

The rest of the film follows Wade and Evans heading toward the Yuma train as one man tries to save his family and another man tries to save his life.

Second in command of Wade's gang is Charlie Prince, portrayed by Ben Foster (X-MEN: the Last Stand). Prince plays the true villain of the movie. In 30 seconds of one scene, he shoots a fleeing man in the back, kills an unarmed, wounded man and shoots another unarmed man in the stomach just to watch him die slowly.

When Prince finds out Wade has been arrested, he chases after him and intends to kill any man who stands in his way.

Crowe and Bale highlight an all-star cast of veteran actors. The legendary Peter Fonda throws in a performance as the elderly Pinkerton with a dark past. Luke Wilson cameos as a bigot sheriff that Wade and his escort encounter on the road to Yuma.

Surprisingly, none of these mammoth actors overshadow the rest of the veteran cast. Director James Mangold kept Crowe's and Bale's characters in check, allowing smaller roles like Alan Tudyk's Doc Potter to expose more about the personality of the main players.Through the relationships that Wade and Evans develop with characters like Doc Potter, Mangold reveals to us that Wade isn't the typical outlaw villain, and Evans isn't the typical cowboy hero.

The characters drive the film. Fireside chats and conversations on horseback expose each character's flaws.

With all the characters and dialogue of this film, it should be as boring as tumbleweeds rolling through a ghost town. Instead, the dialogue only lulls the viewer into a false sense of safety. In one scene, Wade calmly asks for an annoying, singing man to quiet down so he can sleep. When the man ignores him, Wade snaps and stabs the man in the throat with a dinner fork.

This movie has some of the tenants of a stereotypical western. Wade is the most typical Western bad guy, and he calls his six-shooter gun, "the hand of God." At the slightest whistle, his horse comes running. Horse chases, gunfights, duels and explosions shock the viewer, permeate the calm of the movie and push the pace along.

At the same time though, this movie goes above and beyond the typical Western. It's bcause the movie defies the Western mold that it stands out.

The 2007 version of 3:10 to Yuma differs sharply from its 50-year-old predecessor, but both versions are adaptations of a short story by Elmore Leonard. Many of Leonard's books have been made into movies, notably Get Shorty and Jackie Brown.

This version of Leonard's story centers on Evans' search for anything honorable to have pride in.As he says to his son before escorting Wade, "You just remember your old man walked Ben Wade to that station when no one else would.