3:10 To Yuma

They're also determined to up the body count considerably. That becomes clear during the key robbery, which was an almost civil affair in the original, but becomes a bloodbath this time around. Still, while outlaw leader Russell Crowe is an unrepentant killer—when a surviving guard takes one of his men hostage, Crowe casually shoots them both dead—he has his honorable side. When Bale and his two sons happen across the theft in progress, Crowe leaves them unharmed, but on foot, though he thoughtfully tells them where he's planning to leave their horses for retrieval. Still, Bale is humiliated by his helplessness and by the judgmental cynicism of his teenage son Logan Lerman. When Bale decides to help capture Crowe, evade his murderous gang, and transport him to a train bound for Yuma Prison (in a sort of Old West version of 16 Blocks), he's partially motivated by a desperate need for the cash fee, but his desire to regain his son's respect likely plays a major role too.

It's hard to tell, since Bale and Crowe both play their cards close to the chest, embracing the Western aesthetic with tight, controlled performances. The film itself is more expressive, with its gory murders, big chase scenes, explosions, and other major expansions of the originally short tale. Brandt and Haas go too far in trying to pack their characters with extra humanizing characteristics—Bale has a peg leg, Crowe likes to sketch his surroundings—and their version of the ending seems ridiculously improbable. But Mangold delivers a taut modern take on a lesser classic, preserving the High Noon themes about doing the right thing against all odds, and injecting a more modern pacing and urgency without going overboard. His film isn't Leonard's classic, but it's a solid, genre-respecting Western in its own right.