3:10 to Nowhere

The other night I was watching the movie 3:10 to Yuma. This movie is not the most amazing movie ever made but it’s good. I realized though when I was watching it why I like it so much. The movie follows Christian Bale (a poor rancher) escorting Russell Crowe (infamous outlaw) to the town of Contention where he will be put on the train to prison. In the meantime Crowe’s gang is chasing after them with the lust of blood in their mouths. At the end of the movie all of the other escorts, Marshalls, lawmen, Pinkerton’s, the whole posse, deserts Crowe because to protect him is worth more than they are willing to give up. Bale is the only one left and the only reason he was guarding him in the first place was money. Crowe offers him five times the amount he was going to get paid if he will just walk away. Bale refuses and I couldn’t really understand why until I realized that to him making sure this infamous outlaw gets on the train to Yuma is the only real thing of substance this rancher has ever done. He is poor, his sons have no respect for him and though he was in the army he was discharged because someone shot him in the foot.
This moment is the only one the rancher has ever had. He has never done anything of bravery, of notice and he needs to fight for something. He tells his son that if he dies to tell the world that he put Ben Wade on the 3:10 to Yuma. This is his claim to fame, not that he even wants to be famous, he just needs to accomplish something, be worth something, know that he mattered in the role of history. And this is the reason I like this movie. Because I am Christian Bale. I have no great battle to fight, no great outlaw to guard. I have no ranch to protect, no stagecoach to rob. And I want to.
I want to blow shit up, and get into gunfights on an old western dusty street. I want to be a Scottish warrior running down the fields of Sterling to face my enemy. I want to be a pirate and search for buried treasure on a tropical island in the Caribbean. It’s not the violence that is the point, its something more, what I’m not sure. But, I will do none of this. What battles are there to fight today? To make the most money? Conquer the most women? Become the most intellectual? Convert the most souls? Become the best Christian, be the biggest kingdom builder? Start the most churches, heal the most people? Drive the fanciest car, be the best in my company? To get the highest degree?
All of these battles sound really lame. They do not sound exciting. The word career especially sounds very unexciting. I guess now we fight for more crap to buy, and more certificates to hang on walls. I wish I had something to fight for, some battle to enlist in, some metaphorical beasts head to cut off.