3:10 to Yuma (2007) Anatomy of a Scene
“They’re going to kill me in the morning… I’ll never see the sun”
Scene 6 (36 minutes, 45 seconds) — “Setting Bait”
To set the scene: With his gang of outlaws long since departing the town of Bisbee and well ahead of the town’s official and unofficial stream of law enforcers, “Ben Wade” (Russell Crowe) takes the relaxed opportunities afforded him in this now lawless town of whiskey, drawing and pleasures of the flesh with the local barmaid before he crosses paths once more with local rancher “Dan Evans” (Christian Bale). Despite a chasm of differences between them, the cutthroat Wade has only smiles for the war veteran turned cattle rancher he met during a stagecoach robbery earlier that day and without seeming to have a care in the world he amiably, and with many approving smiles, pays Evans for the inconvenience he caused the rancher and his family earlier that morning. Quickly arrested by the gaggle of returning law enforcers, a posse is required to escort Wade to the city of Contention for the 3:10 train to Yuma prison and with one man short, Evans offers his wartime experience for the princely sum of $200.00 to settle both a debt owed on his farm and for its continuing existence. Once agreed, a plan is formed to transport Wade to Evan’s ranch before their onward journey to Contention and thus setting both bait and a decoy wagon for Wade’s gang who are guaranteed to pursue their leader to set him free…
Evans rides ahead of the stagecoach carrying Wade and as expected, is tracked the entire way by his loyal right hand man in his outlaw gang “Charlie Prince” (Ben Foster) as we cut to Dan’s wife “Alice Evans” (Gretchen Mol) worried and concerned at having an outlaw in her home. Dan assures her he will only be in their home for one hour and to “make sure his outfit take the bait” as we cut to the stagecoach carrying the outlaw stuck in rocky tracks on the approach to their farmhouse. Director James Mangold now cleverly cuts back and forth between the outlaw staring at the Evans’ farmhouse as he laments loudly “remind me not to play poker in this town” to Dan’s oldest of two young boys “William Evans” (Logan Lerman) who dreams of the adventures he reads in cowboy annuals and who idolizes the very outlaw about to set foot in his home.
With the stagecoach finally released from the tracks and the light of the evening fading, we cut inside the farmhouse to the crackle of a log fire and with tensions mounting through wary stares around the family dining table. Sat at either end of the table is a smiling Ben Wade and a taciturn Dan Evans now staring at his oldest son William gazing in awe at the outlaw ripped from the pages of his annuals as dinner is served and before grace, Wade immediately begins eating with the relish and lack of manners of a hungry animal. “Aren’t we supposed to say grace for murderers too?” questions Dan’s youngest son “Mark Evans” (Ben Petry) who somewhat dominates the continuation of the scene which is bathed in a smokey yellow colour hue amid the crackling of the fire nearby. After grace has been said and with Wade still eating quickly and hungrily, Mark boasts of his Dad’s marksmanship with a rifle with childish enthusiasm as well as huge admiration for a father he clearly sees as a hero and not the outlaw idolized by his older brother. As Dan smiles in thanks to his youngest son he also warns him that killing rabbits is far different than killing a man, to which a smiling Wade begs to differ as he looks at Dan and then bounty hunter “Byron McElroy” (Peter Fonda) who responds coldly “Not a soul taken that didn’t deserve what they got”. Still smiling and now holding court over the continuing conversation, a handcuffed Wade is struggling to cut his steak and with Dan now walking around the table to cut up his food, Wade takes the first opportunity of many to look Dan’s wife dead in the eyes as he announces with a smile “The Lord ponders the heart — Proverbs 21”.
As Dan cuts up the outlaw’s steak (with Wade constantly asking him to cut off the fat and gristle and generally mocking him), each man cannot take his eyes off the other. Wade now asks Dan how he got the “hitch” or limp in his leg and again without taking his eyes from the outlaw he simply confirms his army position in the war without answering Wade’s direct question as William proudly boasts of his father’s service. “Well Dan” continues Wade, “tell me the story of how you lost your leg” and whilst still not taking his eyes off his unwanted house guest, gunshots are heard outside, sending every member of the posse running outside to defend the house from an attack from Wade’s gang. We cut back inside the house as Wade surreptitiously slips a fork inside the sleeve of his shirt before smiling at his secretive achievement as well as presumably his gang raising hell outside before coming to rescue him and then to Alice who at first refuses to engage with him until he talks of San Francisco, and a girlfriend he once had there who shared the sparkling green eyes of the lady now awkwardly falling under his spell, staring at the outlaw and now slowly engaging with his questions until Dan returns from outside, the gunshots now long since passed.
Storming into their bedroom, a lone lamplight illuminating the continuing colour hue of a dirty yellow, Dan turns immediately to his wife, incredulous at her seeming intoxication with Wade as he states “For God’s sake. He’s killed more men than the drought” before insisting they both ensure the children don’t talk to or engage with a “dangerous” Wade. Worried for her husband’s safety, Alice tries to dissuade Dan from the task at hand in the coming days and to stay with the family on the farm. Loading his pistol with his back to wife, Dan turns to face her with the realism of their financial situation and that with the bounty of $200.00 and the completion of the job their problems will be solved, the farm will be secured and within six months, “the cows are gonna be fat” and “we might even see the steam from the passing trains coming over the ridge”. But they won’t make it through the next six days let alone six months if he doesn’t escort the dangerous man in the other room to the train for Yuma. “Have a little faith” he continues “If I don’t go, we gotta pack up and leave, and God knows where without a prayer, dirt poor. I’m tired Alice. Tired of watching my boys go hungry. I’m tired of the way they look at me. I’m tired of the way you don’t. I’ve been standing on one leg for three damn years, waiting for God to do me a favour.
And he ain’t listening”.
After watching (and enjoying) James Mangold’s 13th feature length film to date and last year’s A Complete Unknown, I thought it high time to return to his earlier career efforts and with only 3 missing from my DVD collection (1995’s Heavy, 2001’s Kate and Leopold and 2010’s Knight and Day), I plumped for his lucky 7th film and one I’ve adored for nigh on two decades now. Rather than providing a dissection of the opening minutes of the film I’ve instead pored over my favourite scene as we have the calm before the storm, the somewhat playful butting of heads between a family man and a cold blooded killer and a smiling assassin high in the estimation of an infatuated son desperate to break free from a father’s forlorn shadow. A remake of the 1957 film of the same name and based on Elmore Leonard’s 1953 short story, two Oscar nominations followed in 2008 for the music soundtrack of Marco Beltrami and the sound mixing of Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe, but what continues to impress me, both in this scene and the film as a whole, is Phedon Papamichael’s beautiful cinematography and Russell Crowe and Christian Bale constantly stealing each other’s thunder with premier performances in as good a contemporary western as you could wish to see!
Up next from the James Mangold wagon train will be firm favourites Cop Land, Walk the Line and Ford v Ferrari, so stay tuned.
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my trilogy of recently self-published books. Beautiful covers eh! As the title(s) would suggest, this is my life at the movies or at least from 1980 to 2024, and in volume 1 you’ll find 80 spoiler free appraisals of movies from debut filmmakers, 91 of the very best films appraised with love and absent of spoilers from 1990–2024 in volume 2, and in volume 3 you’ll find career “specials” on Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino together with the very best of the rest and another 87 spoiler free film reviews from 2001–2024.
All available in hardback and paperback and here are some handy links:
"A Life at the Movies Vol.1" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.2" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.3" - link to Amazon