3:10 to Yuma Plot
3:10 to Yuma is a 2007 Western film that is a remake of the 1957 film 3:10 to Yuma, making it the second adaptation of Elmore Leonard's short story. It is directed by James Mangold and stars Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. Filming took place in various locations in New Mexico. 3:10 to Yuma opened September 7, 2007, in the United States.
Dan Evans (Christian Bale) , an impoverished rancher and Civil War veteran, awakens to find his barn in flames, set ablaze by two men working for Glen Hollander, to whom Evans owes money. The next morning, as Evans and his two sons herd cattle they stumble upon outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) and his gang ambushing an armored stagecoach, who use the cattle as a road blockade. As he loots the stage, Wade discovers Dan Evans and his two sons watching from the hills. Acknowledging that they pose no threat, Wade takes their horses and travels with his gang to the town of Bisbee, Arizona to enjoy a celebratory drink at the local saloon.
The railroad guards, finding Evans and his sons with Byron McElroy (Peter Fonda) a bounty hunter and lone survivor of the ambush. Evans reveals Bisbee as Wade's likely destination, where the guards immediately return, joined by Evans and McElroy. While Doc Potter (Alan Tudyk) treats McElroy, Evans tries negotiating with Hollander, who reveals his intentions to sell the land to the railroad. Enraged at the loss of his livelihood, Evans tries confronting Hollander in the nearby saloon when he finds Wade, whom he distracts long enough for the railroad guards to ambush and arrest him. Butterfield enlists McElroy, Potter, Tucker (Kevin Durand), one of Hollander's guards, and Evans, who agrees for a $200 fee as guards for Wade's arrest party. McElroy arranges a decoy wagon to distract Wade's gang, now led by the fanatical Charlie Prince (Ben Foster) while the real convoy charts a course for Contention, where Wade will board the 3:10 P.M. train to Yuma, Arizona. As the group prepares to ride out, Evans's eldest teenage son William (Logan Lerman) demands to accompany them, which Evans flatly refuses.
During the journey, Wade kills Tucker and McElroy but is stopped from escaping by the surprise arrival of William. While taking a shortcut through a canyon, the group is attacked by Apache Indians. Evans is wounded, but Wade arms himself and successfully kills the attackers. Following the shootout, Wade escapes to a Chinese laborer construction camp blasting a tunnel through the mountain range, where the foreman captures and tortures Wade. Evans, William, Potter, and Butterfield appear and after unsuccessful attempts at negotiation, Potter leads an attack on the foremen and his miners, freeing Wade and fleeing on their horses. During the escape, Potter is shot and killed, having sacrificed himself, while Wade and Evans destroy the tunnel behind them with dynamite. The group arrives in Contention several hours before the train's scheduled arrival and check into a hotel, where they are soon joined by several local marshals hired by Butterfield.
Prince ambushes and interrogates the survivor of the decoy wagon, learning that Wade is being delivered to Contention and will board a train to Yuma, then burns the decoy. Upon arriving in Contention and discovering the heavy guard presence around Wade, Prince offers every townsperson a sizable bounty for every guard they kill. The marshals, unwilling to fight against steep odds, surrender to Prince, who kills them anyway. Butterfield refuses to complete the mission, offering Evans $200 to free Wade. Evans refuses, asking Butterfield to escort his son back to his ranch and pay his wife $1,000 in exchange for Evans delivering Wade to the train. Butterfield agrees.
Evans escorts Wade out of the hotel and the two make their way across town, evading continuous gunfire from the townspeople before taking refuge inside a storeroom. Wade, tired of running, nearly strangles Evans when Evans reveals that his wooden leg, a subject Wade brought up throughout the journey, was lost from friendly fire, a story that would shame his sons, and that delivering Wade to Yuma would serve as an accomplishment his sons would admire. Wade relents and agrees to board the train. The two return to the streets, dodging bullets and taking several wounds before barricading themselves in the station to wait for the train, where Wade reveals that he's been to Yuma twice and escaped both times.
Wade's gang set up positions around the station as the train approaches. William, observing the events, stampedes a herd of cattle that provides cover for Evans to push Wade onto the train. As Wade boards, he congratulates Evans before a vengeful Prince shoots Evans, slumping him against the train rails, barely alive. Wade steps off the train, in shock over the death of Evans, and catches the gun belt Prince tosses him. Wade, dead silent for several moments, vengefully shoots Prince and the rest of his gang. William appears and draws his gun on Wade but decides against killing him, instead turning to his dying father. Wade somberly boards the train and surrenders his weapon. As the train pulls away, he whistles for his horse, who perks up his ears and immediately trots after the train, into the distance.
In June 2003, Columbia Pictures announced a negotiation with director James Mangold to helm a remake of the 1957 Western film 3:10 to Yuma, based on a script written by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas. After being apart from the project for several years, Mangold resumed his role as director in February 2006 for 3:10 to Yuma, based on a new draft by screenwriter Stuart Beattie, who rewrote the scripts by Brandt and Haas. Production was slated to begin in summer 2006. In the same month, actor Tom Cruise expressed an interest in starring as the villain in the film. Eric Bana also briefly sought a role in the film.
In summer 2006, Columbia placed the film on turnaround, and the project was acquired by Relativity Media. Actors Russell Crowe and Christian Bale were cast into 3:10 to Yuma, and Relativity began seeking a distributor for the film. By September, Lions Gate Entertainment signed on to distribute the film. Later in the month, Peter Fonda, Gretchen Mol, Dallas Roberts, Ben Foster, and Vinessa Shaw were cast. Filming was slated to begin on October 23, 2006 in New Mexico. On the first day of filming, a rider and his horse were seriously injured in a scene when the horse ran directly into a camera-carrying vehicle instead of veering off as planned. The rider was hospitalized, and the horse had to be euthanized on the set. The animal's death prompted an investigation from the American Humane Association. By November, the AHA concluded its investigation, finding that the horse did not respond accordingly due to having received a dual training approach and the rider not being familiar with the mount. The organization recommended no charges against the producers. Principal photography took place in and around Santa Fe, Abiquiú, and Galisteo. The Bonanza Creek Ranch represented the film's town of Bisbee as a "kinder, gentler frontier town" while Galisteo was set up to be Contention (now a ghost town), a "much rougher, bawdier, kind of sin city". Filming concluded on January 20, 2007.
After filming concluded, the owners of the Cerro Pelon Ranch petitioned to keep a $2 million expansion to the movie set on their property, which was supposed to be dismantled within 90 days. The set of 3:10 to Yuma made up 75% of the overall sets on the ranch. In April 2007, the request was met by the county's development review committee to keep the expansion, which would potentially generate revenue in the future.
3:10 to Yuma was originally slated for an October 5, 2007 release, but Lionsgate moved the film's release a month earlier to September 7, 2007 to beat competing Western films The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and No Country for Old Men. As a result of the move, the studio will not be able to use the Toronto Film Festival as a platform for the film's release, but it will be released before a cluster of films similarly vying for awards. According to Lionsgate president Tom Ortenberg, "In what is shaping up to be a very impressive and crowded field of upscale commercial motion pictures this fall, we wanted to be one of the first ones out, so that everything else will be measured against us." Lionsgate has an awards campaign planned to promote 3:10 to Yuma, and the earlier theatrical run will position it for a prominent DVD release in the first week of January, during awards seasons. Lionsgate similarly planned this strategy for Crash (2004), which won the Oscar for Best Picture that year.
3:10 to Yuma debuted in the United States and Canada on September 7, 2007 in 2,652 theaters. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $14,035,033 and ranked #1 at the U.S. and Canadian box office. As of September 12, 2007, 3:10 to Yuma has grossed an estimated $50,442,000 in the United States and Canada and $3,439,900 in other territories for a worldwide total of $39,580,008.
As of September 26, 2007 on the review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes, 87% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 166 reviews. On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 76 out of 100, based on 37 reviews.
