Favourite Western's

[scoundrel]

3-10 to Yuma (1957)



I’ve seen this film just once and my viewing was interrupted at two key stages by some idiot who needed my attention right now and couldn’t wait: so frustrating. But I saw the film enough to say it is excellent. I gather the Russell Crowe version is also highly regarded; but the 1957 original has not lost any of its mystery and power. I keep my eyes open for another chance to see it.

The film is rich in symbolism and layers of meaning. It is really a film about the duality of good and evil, which can be found simultaneously in the same place, and about the estrangement of people who live close together and yet are not in harmony. Glenn Ford’s performance as the villain, outlaw-leader Ben Wade is absolutely outstanding; Glenn Ford was really gifted in acting the parts of men with dual personalities. In the great film noir, Gilda, opposite Rita Hayworth, he portrayed a hero whose paranoia and jealousy make him cruel and dangerous. Here, he plays a villain with a dual personality, who is murderous and holds the law in contempt, and is yet ambiguous and strangely reserved. His motives and his purposes are not always clear; yet one feels that he is always self-consistent even when his actions seem contradictory. He is a very complex and three-dimensional character.


Ben Wade is caught in town after leading the robbery of the stagecoach, during which one of his gang was careless and allowed himself to be disarmed by the coach guard, who used him as a human shield. Wade shot the guard dead, straight through the body of his own man. He’s bad; that’s not in any doubt. It is a very small town and the sheriff is quite clear that he has not the forces to fight off Wade’s gang, who will inevitably come to rescue him, so Wade must go to Yuma where there is a well defended penitentiary. However, anyone taking him there must run the gauntlet of Wade’s gang. The stagecoach owner, Mr Butterfield, offers a $200 dollar reward for anyone who will carry out this deadly mission.

Now...after three years of drought, rancher Dan Evans (Van Heflin) is looking down the barrel of foreclosure. He has a wife (Leora Dara as Alice Evans) who is vociferously disappointed in him and resentful about the hardships and stress of their shared penniless and debt-haunted life. He has two sons who will have no future prospects if he loses the ranch. Losing the ranch is imminent. Loathe though he is to stick his neck out, and keenly aware that as a father of a young family he has a duty to stay alive, he desperately needs $200; it could save his whole future. But he takes the job almost without help; only the town drunk is willing to share the assignment, for $200 and for the adventure.

Evans is not dumb. To evade the gang, he needs a diversion. This he gets by taking Ben Wade on the stagecoach to Yuma and faking a breakdown in a place where someone from Wade’s gang is bound to see that he is on the stage. Then he removes Wade from the stagecoach and takes him to Contention City, to catch the 3-10 train to Yuma. Overnight, he hides Wade on his own ranch as a “guest”.

The ranch scenes are where the psychological drama starts to get really interesting. Ben Wade, who is a cold blooded killer, turns out to be confident, urbane, and gentlemanly in front of Wade’s family. He is highly intelligent, an interesting conversationalist. His table-manners are impeccable and he shows genuine respect and recognition that he is in someone’s home. His composure in captivity is very disturbing; it is his invincible calm and self-possession which convinces the viewer that this polite and well conducted man is deadly-dangerous. Mrs Evans, for her part, is aghast when she discovers what her husband has decided to do to put right the situation of which she has been complaining to him for literally years. Much as she would like to have $200, when she looks at Ben Wade, she sees her husband’s death smiling courteously at her and her soon-to-be-orphaned children, and she is terrified.

Sadly, due to the foolishness of others, the success of the stagecoach ruse is undermined and Wade’s gang finds out he is in Contention City. What follows is about 50 minutes of really gripping cat-and mouse mind games, punctuated by startling violence. Poor Alex, the town drunk, is wounded in the street when Wade’s gang surprise him; as an act of intimidation, they hang him inside the hotel, using the stairs, banister and stairwell as a gallows.

Wade’s reactions to this killing are intriguing; he is not thrilled. Cold blooded killer though he is the hanging strikes him as unnecessary; he doesn’t kill people just because he can. It is becoming clear that he has rather a lot more class than his gang. For many minutes, he plays fascinating mind games with the more stolid and unimaginative, yet quietly desperate Dan Evans, seeking a bit like Satan in the desert to undermine his strength of purpose. What I especially liked about this part of the film was my sense that Ben Wade is seriously negotiating and not at all out of any sense of being trapped. He is quite certain that he will escape. He doesn’t need a way out for himself. But out of respect for Mrs Evans and her children, he wants to offer Dan Evans a way out. Evans fought off and disarmed a man from Contention City, who attempted private revenge against Wade, and Wade owes him some consideration for that; but in addition, Wade is showing mercy. He will even pay Evans $400 to walk away, and there is no doubt of his “integrity”; he is genuinely interested in finding out whether Evans has a price and what that price might be. There is a striking current of curiosity in Ban Wade's repeated tempting of Dan Evans.


Wade observes dispassionately and with an air of some commiseration as Mr Butterfield pleads with Evans to give the mission up; Butterfield never meant that anyone should have to die and is bitterly afraid to have Mrs Evans and her orphaned little boys on his conscience. Then Mrs Evans turns up and tearfully begs her husband to let Wade go, begging Wade as well to spare him if he does this. Wade observes this too and uses it, twisting the knife keenly by pointing out what Dan Evans’ death would mean; he is chilling in part because his concern for the welfare of the Evans family is unforced. He liked them and would be pleased to see Dan Evans walk away, unhurt. This is really great acting from both Van Heflin and Glenn Ford as these two discuss the future in stark terms.

Dan Evans feels he cannot abandon his purpose, even though Mr Butterfield will still pay $200 if he does. He owes it to Alex, hanging on that rope, not to quit.

The town drunk gave his life because he believed that people should be able to live in decency and peace together. You think I can do less?

The final 15 minutes, which begin when the clock strikes three and Dan Evans starts to escort his prisoner towards the train-station to get on that train, is a really fine firefight in the western tradition. Evans is tactically astute and can shoot straight; the gang loses several members and finds Evan’s knowledge of angle and trajectory frustrating as they keep failing to obtain a clear shot. Wade observes this also, showing no sign of fear, frustration or agitation as the bullets fly and he is still not free. Wade’s calm is even more unnerving as the scene unfolds. The denouement involves a really startling twist of the plot which I won’t divulge; suffice to say that in the end, Evans lives because Ben Wade allows it. Wade really does have class and Dan Evans has earned Wade’s clemency by being honest, brave and loyal to his principles; Evans also has a family and in the ranch scene we saw intriguing clues that the concept of family means something to the outcast Ben Wade.

This is a film full of ambiguities and unanswered questions, a real thinking man/woman’s western. But at the very end, one question is answered. As Mrs. Evans rides the family horse-buggy back homewards, and raises her eyes upwards in silent prayer of thanks for God’s mercy in sparing her husband, who she herself goaded into terrible danger without realising what would happen, the rain begins to fall. By staking everything to gain his family’s hope for the future, Dan Evans has achieved the renewal of his marriage and the future of his children. We have seen enough of Ben Wade at the end to appreciate that this lethal and ruthless man will get away, regardless of Dan Evans, but that he won’t hurt Evans and he will be generously pleased when he learns that Evans and the Evans family are doing well.

I see this as an early example of revisionist western, subtly undermining stereotypes and putting subversive questions to the audience. Ben Wade remains blandly confident that he will get away; I personally don’t doubt it either. He is the eternal dark side; there will no neat execution to end the menace he poses. But unlike his gang, he is strong and calm and not at all vindictive. He co-exists with the respectable world of people like the Evans family and doesn’t feel envious or spiteful; they made another choice, that’s all. He is an early western version of Michael Corleone or Tony Soprano; villainous, but socially responsible and no loose cannon. One senses that this self-discipline and philosophical calm is his most deadly attribute of all and the reason why he is indestructible.

3-10 to Yuma is a really fine film.

[lothian]

Ulzana's Raid
The good the bad and the ugly
The magnificent seven
little big man
Jeremiah Johnson
The cowboys

[Nobody1]

Texas, Doc Snyder hält die Welt in Atem. (Germany, 1993)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108317/reviews

Caution , it's not everyones taste. It's a german thing. I don't know how the titel can best be translated. Maybe 'Texas, Doc Snyder makes it exciting' or so.

It could be described as a satire, but even that is not true. It's just sheer anarchy, pressed into a insane movie. I like it a lot, but i'm german and i have a strong weakness for everything strange and weird (not in a sexual sense ). Besides, i'm a hardcore fan of Helge Schneider. An artist, very popular in germany.

I don't know if there is a version with english subs. There are some reviews at imdb, so i think yes.

So if you're curious, take a look. Maybe you will have some fun. Or maybe not, who knows.

[Booji Boy]

Anyone remember The 7 Faces Of Dr Lao? Great for it's time & a real leftfield western.

[Mal Hombre]

Yes I remember that one,A Fantasy Western/Morality tale with Tony Randall in the title role(s).A very good movie IMHO with great (For the time) FX .

[theequestrian]

Seven Samurai - better known to western audiences as The Magnificent Seven or to younger western audiences as Star Wars.

[KissArmy]

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly. Featuring the best bad guy ever: Tuco Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez...also known as The Rat.

[daddyrock]

These Are Some Of My Classic Favorites.
The Cheyenne Social Club
Two Mules For Sister Sara
North To Alaska
Jeff Bridges-True Grit
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
Quigley Down Under

[blueballsdc]

Originally Posted by theequestrian

Seven Samurai - better known to western audiences as The Magnificent Seven or to younger western audiences as Star Wars.

Star Wars was not based on Seven Samurai. It was "inspired" by The Hidden Fortress (also a great movie).

Battle Beyond the Stars was based on the Seven Samurai. Not a great movie but certainly a cult classic.

[Thedoghead]

There are so many westerns that I have on DVD I find it hard to actually pick one favourite. I recently bought Destry Rides Again on DVD at a Car Boot sale for 50p. James Stewart was at his best as was Marlene Deitrich and the sexual chemistry between them was evident. The fight scene with Marlene Deitrich is very sexy with lots of stocking on show plus the fact Deitrich gives it everything and I often wonder if that fight was one shoot. A great film for any western fan.