# 3:10 to Yuma **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 3, 2007, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881 "2007-09-03T06:23:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![searchingfound](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71c47a/32.png) [@searchingfound](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/searchingfound)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/21 "2007-09-18T00:05:34Z")
A classic. I saw it twice in the theater. As with any movie…take what you get from it cause its what you paid for. I was entertained. An man killed the only man who ever loved him because he had shot the only man…the only man that he ever loved. A classic tale. Is it not re-told again and again. Just a new spin on it. ---
**Author:** ![ArizonaTeach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/45deac/32.png) [@ArizonaTeach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArizonaTeach)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/22 "2007-09-18T00:46:27Z")
[QUOTE=searchingfound] A classic. I saw it twice in the theater. As with any movie…take what you get from it cause its what you paid for. I was entertained. An man killed the only man who ever loved him because he had shot the only man…the only man that he ever loved. A classic tale. Is it not re-told again and again. Just a new spin on it. [/QUOTE] That sounds like it would have made **Brokeback Mountain** 47% less dull. I saw **3:10 to Yuma** yesterday, and I thought it was a perfect ending. Wade didn’t make the final choice until Dan told him how he was injured in the leg, and Wade realized that this was redemption for Dan, and possibly for himself. ---
**Author:** ![zuma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9c0ed/32.png) [@zuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zuma)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2007, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/23 "2007-09-24T13:30:32Z")
I finally saw this… I don’t really have much to add regarding the ending, as others have summed it up well. This was the best movie I’ve seen this year with Superbad being #2. I’ll be renting the original version of this… I think Crowe was outstanding as usual, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets a best picture nom. Also Ben Foster was great as the head gang member. ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2007, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/24 "2007-09-24T21:11:00Z")
Movie was exceedingly lame, tempered for me only by the fact that I also saw Eastern Promises recently and that was much worse. Did anyone else think that even though the Charlie Price character was the best thing in the movie: the screenwriter ripped off the “I hate posses” line from Indiana Jones and his “I hate snakes?” Seems like plagiarism to me. ---
**Author:** ![Tenebras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2007, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/25 "2007-09-24T21:21:28Z")
Actually, the “I hate possies” is an homage to that John Wayne classic _Men Without Women_. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2007, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/26 "2007-09-24T21:52:36Z")
[QUOTE=denquixote] Movie was exceedingly lame, tempered for me only by the fact that I also saw Eastern Promises recently and that was much worse. [/QUOTE] Ok, that’s two really good recent movies you didn’t like. What have you seen recently that you DID like? [QUOTE=denquixote] the screenwriter ripped off the “I hate posses” line from Indiana Jones and his “I hate snakes?” Seems like plagiarism to me. [/QUOTE] I think you need to watch more old movies. There wasn’t one thing in **Raiders of the Lost Ark** that hadn’t been used numerous times elsewhere, generally decades before. Putting it all together into one great package is what made Raiders brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2007, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/27 "2007-09-24T22:34:24Z")
My thoughts: [spoiler]If these guys were depraved enough to shoot the last good man in the world, and shoot him down like a dog, then they deserved to die. That’s why he killed his gang. Any amount of personal redemption on behalf of Ben Wade would’ve meant his ass. He got on the train because he knew he was going to escape anyway. New places, new gang. Possibly less homoeroticism. It was clumsy but pretty good. Elmore Leonard strikes again. I’d like to see a sequel where the kid comes back as a lawman trying to bring Wade to justice. (It’s also not unprecedented in Westerns for Swiss Cheese Cowboys to miraculously recover if the money’s good enough. Christian Bale should return.)[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2007, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/28 "2007-09-24T23:38:22Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] Ok, that’s two really good recent movies you didn’t like. What have you seen recently that you DID like? I think you need to watch more old movies. There wasn’t one thing in **Raiders of the Lost Ark** that hadn’t been used numerous times elsewhere, generally decades before. Putting it all together into one great package is what made Raiders brilliant. [/QUOTE] Yes; I agree; raiders was brilliant just as Pulp Fiction was brilliant. It is one thing to do an hommage to another genre or director and it is quite another to just rip him off. In any case the line was totally out of place in my opinion. The best recent movie I have seen is the Bourne Ultimatum (Bourne 3, if I have the title wrong.) Also, The Good German and The Lives of Others. I must admit that I find most contemporary movies to be disappointing. This version of 3:10 to Yuma was pretty pointless. The few changes that were made were either adding new cliches or just adding more violence or, in the case of the ending, trying to create ambiguity for its own sake. The original, IMHO, was far superior, not least because the relationship between Glenn Ford and Felicia Farr was more believable to me than the one between Russell Crowe and whomever played the part in the new version. Also, even though Van Heflin is far from my favorite actor, he was near perfect for the role here as the everyman doing what must be done. I had no problem with the role as played by Christian Bale, I just liked Heflin better. Heflin and his wife looked more like frontier people while Bale, with his movie star smile and his beautiful blond wife looked like what they are, movie stars. Believe me if there is one thing I don’t need to do it is watch more old movies. I think the fact that I have seen so many old movies is the reason I am so disappointed with new ones. They lack originality. If you haven’t seen the older ones, everything is new to you and more enjoyable. ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2007, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/29 "2007-09-24T23:42:36Z")
[QUOTE=El Cid Viscoso] My thoughts: [spoiler]If these guys were depraved enough to shoot the last good man in the world, and shoot him down like a dog, then they deserved to die. That’s why he killed his gang. Any amount of personal redemption on behalf of Ben Wade would’ve meant his ass. He got on the train because he knew he was going to escape anyway. New places, new gang. Possibly less homoeroticism. It was clumsy but pretty good. Elmore Leonard strikes again. I’d like to see a sequel where the kid comes back as a lawman trying to bring Wade to justice. (It’s also not unprecedented in Westerns for Swiss Cheese Cowboys to miraculously recover if the money’s good enough. Christian Bale should return.)[/spoiler] [/QUOTE] I myself love almost all Elmore Leonard. I would be really curious to hear his uncensored thoughts on this latest version vs. the original. I beleive I have read that he did not like the treatments given to any of his early movies. Hombre, an early Leonard work, to me is the best ever. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/30 "2007-09-25T03:58:37Z")
I really think [Ben Foster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Foster_%28actor%29) as Charlie Prince was the highlight of this movie. As he was in _Alpha Dog_ - he’s just an ace at playing these incredibly tight-wound, loose cannon, intimidating psychotics. He is one scary dude. I understand his character in _Six Feet Under_ was kind of a sexually-ambiguous pretty boy, but I think he’s found his niche playing sadistic psychos. ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/31 "2007-09-25T04:17:41Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] I really think [Ben Foster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Foster_%28actor%29) as Charlie Prince was the highlight of this movie. As he was in _Alpha Dog_ - he’s just an ace at playing these incredibly tight-wound, loose cannon, intimidating psychotics. He is one scary dude. I understand his character in _Six Feet Under_ was kind of a sexually-ambiguous pretty boy, but I think he’s found his niche playing sadistic psychos. [/QUOTE] I agree, if there was a high point in the movie, he was it; I just hated that posse line so much it tended to make me forget how good he was early on in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/32 "2007-09-25T04:31:16Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] I really think [Ben Foster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Foster_%28actor%29) as Charlie Prince was the highlight of this movie. As he was in _Alpha Dog_ - he’s just an ace at playing these incredibly tight-wound, loose cannon, intimidating psychotics. He is one scary dude. I understand his character in _Six Feet Under_ was kind of a sexually-ambiguous pretty boy, but I think he’s found his niche playing sadistic psychos. [/QUOTE] I totally agree. Ben Wade was a bad man but Charlie Prince was dangerously loony. So much so I wondered why some town in the past didn’t up and kill the lot of them. As the James-Younger gang found out in [Northfield, Minnesota](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James-Younger_gang#1876), it doesn’t pay to annoy the citizenry too much. Of course, the good citizens of Contention were accepting $200 fees to pop some marshals who were in the way. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/33 "2007-09-25T09:59:46Z")
[QUOTE=Tenebras] Actually, the “I hate possies” is an homage to that John Wayne classic _Men Without Women_. [/QUOTE] With a title like that the line should be “I hate pussies”. ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/34 "2007-09-25T10:14:07Z")
Quote: Originally Posted by Tenebras Actually, the “I hate possies” is an homage to that John Wayne classic Men Without Women. With a title like that the line should be “I hate pussies”. I thought the same thing when i read his post. I think his post is a joke, but I don’t really get it. The movie mentioned is not a classic and John Wayne, though he had a small part is hardly remembered for it. It also takes place on a submarine and I am guessing the line “I hate posses” is not part of the dialogue. Other than that I guess it is funny. ---
**Author:** ![Tenebras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/35 "2007-09-26T01:01:56Z")
That’s the joke. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/36 "2007-10-02T08:05:59Z")
Just saw this movie myself, and I had to ressurect this thread to strongly urge everyone (EVERYONE!) who hasn’t seen it yet to go watch it. This film makes up for literally all of the bullshit I’ve had my hopes up for only to be let down this year (I’m looking at you, Spider Man!) ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/37 "2008-02-11T15:18:11Z")
Hope this isn’t a Zombie rez, but I’m generally behind the real world by several months and didn’t want to start a new thread. A couple of notes from me: Generally enjoyed this, although some of the plot and things that happened were more than a bit far-fetched. Had no idea until I read this thread that the story was from Elmer Leonard. His writing is often fun but always a bit sketchy, anyway, so that explains a bit. I thought what Ben Wade did in the end was as much for the boy, William, as it was for anything else. At least in this version (if I ever saw the original I don’t remember it. Yeah, I’m that old). I also figured there was a good chance he’d escape from the train before it ever got to Yuma, which still takes care of the Evans family since the deal was just to get him on the train. I was shocked to see Peter Fonda’s name in the credits at the end. I hadn’t realized that was him playing McElroy the whole time. Also, fwiw, Ben Foster, who plays Charlie Prince in this movie, is dating the daughter of Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz, Zoe Kravitz. She’s 20 now and quite striking. That makes me feel really old. Not as old as Peter Fonda, mind you, but old enough. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881/38 "2008-02-11T18:07:36Z")
I’m glad you resurrected this thread, **ShibbOleth** , because I’m a wait-for-the-DVD kind of person, too. I generally liked the movie, but the one thing that was hard for me is that I don’t think Russell Crowe really does a vicious bad guy very convincingly. He almost radiates trustworthiness and likability, so even though I enjoyed the portrayal very much, I never really bought that I was supposed to think he was an evil villain. I suppose Foster in the role of Charlie Prince was needed to beef up the nastiness aspect. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-10-to-yuma/417881.md?page=1)