Challenging Ideology in the Wild West: An Exploration of Iconography in 3:10 to Yuma

3:10 to Yuma revitalizes the Western Film Genre by addressing humanistic themes of identity, morality, and status. These themes are introduced in a manner that advances previously consolidated methods of utilizing archetypical “good” and “bad” characters, dynamic icons and iconography in order to comment on the inhuman and contradictory nature of law, religion, and immoral corporatism near the dawn of the Twentieth Century.

Rather than provide an audience with the typical characters associated with the Western set in an area of determinate space, James Mangold presents multiple characters who are “on the fence” in terms of their respective ethical and moral codes. Firstly, the main character, Daniel Evans, is a lame rancher and a veteran of the American Civil War. Evans lost his leg defending the Nation’s capitol in the District of Columbia, his false limb and limp associated with it serves as a symbol for his emasculation and social estrangement. He is neither pitiable nor commendable. His eldest son, William, and his wife, Alice, see him as a broken man who is unable to pay his debts to Ben Hollander. The logical fallacy of Hollander damming Evans’ water supply during a drought while simultaneously expecting him to supply monetary repayment, paints a picture of an uncaring society where individuals fend for themselves and live without empathy. A society where individuals like Ben Wade and Charlie Prince must resort to theft and banditry in order to fulfill wishes of relative wealth and prosperity. It is interesting to note that the only individual who lends a helping hand and the only individual who demonstrates charity toward Evans is Wade, a wanted criminal.

Ben Wade provides Evans with reimbursement for two dead cattle without being asked, and goes further to compensate for the lost time of both Dan and William with monies. In the entire film, the only individuals who provide Dan Evans with acts of charity are Ben Wade and Butterfield, however, the former provides assistance without the expectation of service from Evans. This establishes in Evans a moral dilemma where he is tempted by Wade to set him free, out of monetary offering and out of a lost faith in government and society whereby he is treated as a nothing, a lowly rancher, rather than a war hero worthy of respect. The livelihood and health of the Evans’ ranch is of no concern to Hollander, who only seeks to sell Evans’ land to the South Pacific Railway Company. Hollander states that “sometimes a man has to be big enough to see how small he is”, suggesting that the Evans’ ranch, in the broader picture, is only hindering technological progress, and more importantly to Hollander, a big cheque.

William Evans is shown as a pragmatic individual in spite of his father’s naive faith in the law, despite existing off of an inadequate pension, and expiring loan from Hollander, and barely living livestock. Living day to day desperate and penniless with nothing but the story of defending the District of Columbia against the Confederate Army, Evans cannot maintain the status of a father figure, leading William to look to unlawfulness for the solution to his family’s poverty. William’s personality dictates a certain level of unlawful simplicity akin to Ben Wade. This is evident in the very first scenes in the film: We witness William firstly – in awe – viewing the cover of a Beadle Co. Dime Novel, a woodcut relief illustration of The Deadly Outlaw depicting the archetypical bandit firing revolvers into the air, secondly, a lack of faith in the law when William states that the Marshall “ain’t doin’ shit” in regards to a possible legal intervention of Hollander’s injustices. Furthermore, we learn through Evans’ youngest son Mark, William’s desire to solve the family’s money problems by simply shooting Hollander.

 

Later on, William beholds Ben Wade killing a Pinkerton and one of his own men. William states “he’s fast” with a subtle look of admiration and astonishment on his face. This wide-eyed look of reverence is also apparent in the scene where William hands Wade a plate of food at the family ranch, later listening intently to Wade’s explanation as to why shooting a man is no different than shooting an animal. William hears more justification to upholding the mantra of outlaw through Wade’s silencing of Byron McElroy with his greater knowledge of biblical verse. This subtly informs William of societal hypocrisy in this time period. William acknowledges each well spoken statement in jump cuts revealing his attentiveness toward Wade. McElroy justifies slaughtering Apache women and children with “a soul taken deserve[s] what it got” where Wade begs to differ with the cunning line: “every way of man is right in his own eyes Byron, the lord punish[es] the heart.” This statement serves to introduce Wade as a character with independent thought, a character afflicted and influenced by injustices; he is profoundly misunderstood in a world gone awry. He has witnessed the horrific mistreatment of the Apache people by forces of “order”, like McElroy and Butterfield’s Pinkertons. After McElroy attempts to justify his killing of thirty two Apache women and children in the scene just before his death at the gorge, Wade sarcastically remarks “apparently Jesus [doesn’t] like the Apaches”, further revealing his ability to detect the hypocrisy of the contemporary ideological forces in the West. Wade has dealt with people of poor character his entire life, which assists Wade in his eventual transformation into a moral crusader.

Through the film’s progression it becomes apparent that Ben Wade has become tired of his life as an outlaw. Wade is depicted as a bored king and an aesthete, showing no enjoyment in looting or murdering but on the other hand, finding comfort in sketching an auger buzzard when we are first introduced to him, a woman in repose, and finally Dan Evans waiting in anticipation for the train to Yuma Prison to arrive at Contention. He is the only bandit shown to hold compassion to admire beauty in nature; the quality of colour in a woman’s eyes. It becomes clear that Wade wishes to escape the life he has chosen in the early moments of the film, when he asks Ms Nelson, the barmaid, to elope with him to Mexico. Furthermore, at the event of his capture Wade goes so far as to state that “The Hand of God”, his eponymous revolver, bears a curse – this implies that he wishes for release. During the raiding of the coach, Ben Wade is not found assisting his men directly; he is merely an observer from a distance, witnessing the destruction and carnage he has unleashed.

 

It is important to note that Wade’s right hand man Charlie Prince performs a majority of Wade’s reprehensible deeds, serving as both vessel and representative for the crimes that Wade’s character takes credit. Wade himself refers to his men as animals during his stay in the bridal suite. The ruthlessness of the gang is a direct result of Prince’s actions rather than Wade’s, and it is William who first learns this fact. “You’re not all bad”, William says after asking Wade to call of his men during the denouement of the film. It is the youthful and naive nature of William that inspires Wade to perform for Evans his heroic spring to the train yard, the most generous gift that the outlaw gives Evans. Wade sees himself in William, an individual abandoned by the forces of good and without proper role models to emulate. Charlie Prince can also be identified as a son, looking up to Wade as a role model, a zealot when Wade’s leadership is brought into question, and a practitioner of unquestioning loyalty. He is just as naive as William Evans’, a comparison that becomes evident in the final scenes of the film: as Evans contemplates his next move from the bridal suite, both William and Prince are juxtaposed as waiting for their respective fathers.

As Wade is “escorted” to Contention, his ruthlessness cannot be contained. He is never truly controlled, establishing a relationship with his captors where he has free will despite being hand-cuffed and surrounded at all times. Wade performs feats of strength and compassion that outmatch those of his captors, ending the lives of morally inferior individuals like Tucker and McElroy, and saving the lives of his captors who are deemed worthy of his respect. Having several opportunities to escape but never acting on any of them, Wade chooses to remain a prisoner, as if to seek refuge from his own gang and to remain in the company of Evans, just to see how his situation will conclude. In one instance, he saves his captors after being ambushed by Apache irregulars, and in another he assists in his own escape from captivity by a group of tunnellers seeking to torture him for their own personal vendettas. It is through Wade’s torture that Evans and Wade begin to have something in common, that is, they are both thrown aside through violence and become victims of immoral industrial progress. This is explicitly seen where Evans and Wade engage in a discussion regarding Wade’s murder of Tucker, neither mourn the loss of this man and both agree that he deserved his fate: Tucker has stolen Wade’s possessions, and burned down Evans’ barn without remorse. In their escape from the railway tunnels, a point of view shot from the perspective of Evans and Wade riding side by side further illustrates the inhumanity of the railway, as several Chinese slave labourers disperse and pave the way for the protagonists.

Ben Wade can be seen as an eventual Christ figure, using both the word of god combined with his own personal mantra from The Holy Bible to justify his actions. When Wade states to Evans, “you do one good deed for somebody, I imagine its habit forming… I imagine it makes you feel like Christ himself”, the group is immediately ambushed. Paradoxically, Wade performs a good deed by dispatching of the attackers, saving the entire group. For the rest of the film, Wade continues this trend. He has a messianic complex where he claims he is the victim of several injustices, citing his abandonment and the hypocrisy of Manifest Destiny, U.S. Territorial Expansion for incentives to commit crimes. However, the character of Ben Wade as a bandit transforms once he is touched by the truth regarding Evan’s leg. It is here that Wade fully identifies with Evans, both broken men as a result of forces beyond their control.

The final good deed of Wade is a meta-performance where William is led to believe that his father is a hero capable of bringing evil-doers to justice. Evans’ false limb as a bare image and identifier depicting both a metaphorical and physical handicap is transformed into a dynamic symbol, depicting perseverance and heroism for his son. Where William states earlier in the film – “I ain’t never walking in your shoes” – the audience can see for themselves the importance of Evans’ and Wade’s ruse to uphold virtue and influence in the eyes of his son.

Wade’s performance is interrupted by his own metaphoric son, a deliverance of ironic fate that infuriates Wade to the point of murdering his own men as to exact his own vengeance, to render justice for both Daniel and William. The symbol of The Bible is another example of a “dynamic” iconographic image. In the beginning of the film, Wade serves as not only the leader of his gang, but as chaplain and paster as well. His knowledge of The Bible challenges that of McElroy’s, rendering the bare image of The Holy Bible as a symbol representing the book to which only bounty-hunters and bandits recite. In the film, Christianity becomes the very mantra that drives the killers McElroy, Wade, and vicariously, the rest of Wade’s gang and Butterfield’s Pinkertons. The scene where Wade’s gang is in hot pursuit of the two protagonists finalizes the reverberation of the biblical symbol. The title page of The Holy Bible where Wade sketches Daniel is discovered by William in a montage sequence that is intercut with the final chase sequence. Wade’s very act of immortalizing Evans on the title page of a book he once held dear demonstrates a change in him. He acknowledges Evans as an inspirational figure worthy of respect, much like the barmaid and auger buzzard he sketches in the first half of the film. The symbol of The Bible evolves from one justifying the violent actions of McElroy and Wade to a symbol of compassion and martyrdom.

Although Mangold has chosen to adorn Ben Wade in the cliche dress of the western villain – wearing a black hat and riding a black horse – it is the symbolic value of Wade’s revolver “The Hand of God” that comes to serve a specific symbolic function within the narrative system. The symbolic meaning of this bare image evolves throughout the narrative, serving firstly as a tool meant to inspire loyalty in his men and fear in the Pinkertons until eventually, its purpose is reversed and its dynamic usage is fully realized. The “Hand of God”, a symbol so representative of the terror that is Ben Wade that the Pinkertons use it to challenge the authenticity of the claim reported to the Marshall’s office by the deceitful Charlie Prince, becomes a symbol of messianic retribution as soon as it is returned to Wade’s possession by Prince. Wade shoots his entire gang one by one with the revolver, and Wade’s transformation of character comes full circle.

 

In regards to William’s metaphoric transformation from a boy to a man, we are presented with the image of William herding or leading cattle to block the passage of Wade’s gang to the train station at the film’s conclusion, which provides symbolic function when compared to the similar tactic utilized by Wade when robbing the Pinkerton’s convoy. These images relate to each other from the beginning of the film with the cover of William’s dime novel. They are all visual reverberations of the same iconographic symbol of “The Bandit”; a figure that William holds in such regard that he admires Wade.

In Conclusion, the bare images that are associated with the Western film genre slowly but surely become dynamic symbols. The illustration present on the cover of The Deadly Outlaw, the crucifix present on “The Hand of God”, The Holy Bible as interpreted and exploited by both McElroy and Wade, and the prosthetic leg utilized by Evans all transform throughout the narrative. 3:10 to Yuma provides the Western Film genre with unique variations of symbolic employment in order to avoid cliche. Mangold provides us with fully realized characters with their own complex pasts and emotional scarring necessary to convey a complex narrative where characters are compelled to make decisions that either sustain or break their own moral codes. The film’s thematic concerns of law, religion, and immortality are conveyed in a manner that advances previously consolidated methods of utilizing archetypical “Good” and “Bad” characters.