Roger Ebert Gave This Western Starring A Batman Actor A Perfect Score

The Western has been a curious thing in the 21st century. A dead genre? Far from it, but the big hits are certainly fewer and farther between, covering a wider range of material than what was once considered a traditional Western. There's the modern-day "neo-Western," best exemplified by the Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men" and turned into a media phenomenon all its own by Taylor Sheridan. There's the art film Western, absent cowboys and six guns — Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood," for example. And then there's the modern remake: "True Grit" in 2010, but three years before that, a less appreciated gem of a film in James Mangold's "3:10 to Yuma."

A remake of a 1957 Glenn Ford film (both of which are based on a short story by Elmore Leonard), Mangold's film got great reviews and features two spectacular leading performances from Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, but it's not a movie you hear folks talk about much these days. Upon its release, famed critic Roger Ebert took it as an opportunity to lament the decline of the traditional Western — a form to which "3:10 to Yuma," amidst all the neo-Westerns and other variations on the genre, holds incredibly true.

"The Western in its glory days was often a morality play, a story about humanist values penetrating the lawless anarchy of the frontier," Ebert wrote in his 2007 review, in which he awarded the film a perfect four stars. "But the audience's appetite for morality plays and Westerns seems to be fading."

Though it was made 50 years after the original film, Mangold's "3:10 to Yuma" holds very true to its predecessor's story, with only a couple of notable changes. The plot follows Dan Evans (Christian Bale), a down-on-his-luck rancher in the Arizona territory in the 1880s. Desperate for money, Dan agrees to join a posse escorting famed outlaw and highway robber Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to the town of Contention, where Wade will be loaded onto the 3:10 train to Yuma Prison.

Along the way, the two men discover they have more in common than they initially believed, with each bringing out surprising things in the other. This dynamic, played superbly by Crowe and Bale, is the heart and soul of the film, and it builds to an unforgettable climax.

"Here the quality of the acting, and the thought behind the film, make it seem like a vanguard of something new, even though it's a remake of a good movie 50 years old," Ebert wrote in his review, and he was spot-on. The morality play aspect of the movie — one man willing to risk anything for his family's wellbeing, and the other reminded what it's like to do the right thing — is simple but deeply effective, anchored by a strong script and sharp film craft from Mangold (who later went on to make another, less traditional Western in 2017's "Logan").

If Ebert's perfect score and the promise of an impeccable leading duo isn't enough to make you want to check out "3:10 to Yuma," know that the supporting cast is just as strong. A young Logan Lerman plays a small but key role as Dan's son William, Alan Tudyk pops in as the kindly Doc Potter, and Peter Fonda and Ben Foster steal scenes as a veteran bounty hunter and Wade's volatile second-in-command, respectively.

Currently, the film is only available to stream on Peacock, though it can be rented and "purchased" digitally from other outlets like Apple TV and Amazon. Of course, as more and more people are realizing, "purchasing" a movie digitally doesn't actually guarantee you ownership, as the outlet you buy it from can still remove the film later or revoke access. So, why not embrace the old-fashioned nature of "3:10 to Yuma" like Roger Ebert would have wanted and get yourself a good ol' Blu-ray?

That's right, this was a stealth-pitch for physical media. You're welcome.