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There’s no point in dancing around it: 3:10 to Yuma is a bad movie. Not just run-of-the-mill bad. Not just disappointing considering the cast. I’m talking painful to sit through, even if you’re drunk. But what’s really sad is that it’s a bad Western, which further tarnishes a once great film genre that has fallen into obscurity in recent years.

Forget that this remake is lazily constructed with almost zero attention to detail and sets that look like they were stolen straight out of Back to the Future III (which was probably a better Western, as crazy as that sounds). Hell, even forget that the movie has plot holes big enough to drive a stagecoach through.

What’s really terrible is its complete failure to understand what the Western is all about, even while it adopts all the worst clichés and somehow makes them seem like the best part of the movie. 3:10 to Yuma tries to sell us on the idea that it’s a film about right and wrong, about making hard choices and sticking by your convictions, but it just rings hollow and forced in this weak effort.



Despite strong performances by Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, 3:10 to Yuma is enough to make you wish that Hollywood would just give up on trying to make Westerns altogether, at least until they turn Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian into a box office smash.

Fortunately, there’s a silver lining here. This failure of a movie gives us the chance to reflect on ten of the best Westerns ever made and relive what made them so unforgettable.