3:10 to Yuma (2007)

I haven't seen the original, but this version is definitely worth seeing for the action, bravado, and drama.

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While this version is a fun ride, a key element of the story, which is the internal struggle of a charming and ruthless criminal with a conscience seriously considering a turn for the good, seems to run too far ahead of the viewer, and without real compelling externalities to mark the change, it seems to come from nowhere. The ending was completely compromised for me as being false and unrealistic.

Obviously any internal struggle like this is extremely difficult to convey on film, but the movie doesn't even seem to give it an honest try. Of course, something like a Shakespearean soliloquy was out of question, but there must be other ways.

Nevertheless one interesting aspect of the movie is how Wade seems to win over the group -- despite their efforts to get him to shut-up -- by his charming talk and even his actions. It's perhaps instinctual that his captors seem to trust him. And in an ironic turn, later he is convinced by the words of the rancher. So the respect is mutual.

Is it just that the rancher wasn't convincing to me as a person that Wade would admire to the extent of switching sides? I am too cynical perhaps. Sure the rancher was mostly honest, hard-working and pitiable, but there should be plenty of such persons around even in the old West.

Alright, so the rancher is the only obviously married person with children in the movie. Perhaps, Wade is longing after the life he never had. This seems to be an artificial and contrived situation.

The blond lieutenant to Wade is insanely loyal to his 'boss', but then does he go too far and thus into the region of a (heavily veiled) gay subtext? He's got a light-footed and jaunty dismount and flashy dress. And of course, he dies -- at the hand, of the boss, no less! Was it by design that this fellow was not deserving of any sympathy because of his ruthless killing throughout the film? Perhaps, I'm too sensitive, but damn it, if this kind of unsympathetic and fatal role seems too often to happen to gays.

Continuing along this line of thought, is there a sort of homophobic message of the movie that you should get married and commit hate crimes? Okay, maybe it's just my overactive imagination.