Through his picture-perfect Western “3:10 to Yuma” (2007), director James Mangold is saying that children, women, and men who shelter beneath the shade of subtle masculinity ought to be grateful, not hanker after the spectacular but shallow alternative.
Drought and debt force one-legged Civil War veteran and small-time rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale) to join a posse. They’re out to find and put crooked but charming outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) on the 3:10 train heading to prison in Yuma. While Evans limps through this real-world manhunt, his wife Alice (Gretchen Mol), younger son Mark (Benjamin Petry), and older son William (Logan Lerman) find themselves in a manhunt of a different sort.
