I’ve seen this movie a few times. I’m a sucker for westerns, so I like the whole “Tombstone”, “Magnificent Seven”, etc vibe. The last watch felt a bit different though, and it was more because I took an interesting arc on the characters.

Russell Crowe-who looks fantastic in this and probably at a peak. I don’t mind his whole grizzly bear transformation lately, but I do like the svelte moral killer he is in this one. Anyway, Russell Crowe’s “Ben Wade” was the whole transformational point. This watch was me thinking more about the realism of the story, and the fact that he’d probably wouldn’t be so successful in everything that he pulled off. His swab and debonair talk to the ladies, while also being somewhat evil and then again honorable in his abilities and the plain fact that someone didn’t just walk up and shoot him and make the entire thing so much easier to deal with. I mean at some point it could be explainable-whoops, it’s the wild west and we shot a bunch of characters that don’t matter but it would be a heck of a lot easier to end this one troublesome asshole.

But then I realized that the true juxtaposition is between Ben and Christian Bale-or rather just Bale’s “Dan Evans”. Of course, Ben Foster does an amazing job as a foil and that guy is fantastic in anything he’s in too, but I thought more about the plight of Evans and how much more realistic that is. Ben Wade isn’t realistic. He’s too perfect. He kills-“only the truly evil”. You see shadows when he’s captured and preaching about how the Pinkertons are just as “bad as he is”. He’s a Robin Hood, and a devil in disguise. But he’s more about the journey that Evans faces. Evans does everything right-a wounded veteran, who is just trying to survive and keep his family fed, trying to find the opportunities when he can, and even trying to take as much advantage and eventually loses but keeps his honor. With a little help from the omnipotent and honorable Wade, who tiptoes around death and bullets, around money and women, the desirable things in life that are tempting but seem to lead so many astray. Evans withstands all of those, and yet he still succumbs in the end, shot by Ben Foster’s character right as he accomplishes that goal.

I liken it to a moral hero’s journey, the righteous but still martyred, and eventually the probable and most realistic outcome for his character. Wade, of course, appreciates the sacrifice and kills his gang, only to escape into the day an apparition and legend once more. Maybe he was only there to lead Evans astray, or to test his character’s will. In which case, he won and lost simultaneously, but the grand gesture still stands.

The end too is another pondering point. As we compare to our own lives-which is a terrible analogy but let’s do-are we willing to sacrifice for the righteous? The good of us or our brothers? Do we get lead astray by the devil (temptation) a lot? I suppose it’s all individual, but in the end, one would hope to be a good person rather than just “a” person or the dreaded “bad” person. I guess I would have to choose that hero’s sacrifice if it came to it-it’s a part of who you are and your makeup, and it relates to those who have to come close. I hope his kid in this made up story took note that his dad was truly something to be inspired by and changed his reckless teenage ways into a good and moral man that took care of his mother and family now that his father is gone.