"Gary Coopered" Western Masculinity as the Ideal and the Norm

Justified Episode 3 "Fixer"

In this episode Raylan's expertise with guns, women, and his devotion to his job are at the forefront of this fun and quirky episode. The episode opens with Raylan in the locker room of the Marshall's office putting on his tie when his boss Art Mullen comes in and informs him that his daddy has been arrested again. In previous episodes it has been revealed that Raylan's father is an example of a career criminal and that Raylan's relationship to his father is strained to say the least. Yet, when Mullen inquires about Raylan's father's criminal escapades he says, "Just out of curiosity is he a knucle head or is he a real bad guy," with a grin. Raylan continues to dress and tells his boss that he should know already because he has already pulled his sheet [a reference to his arrest history]. Mullen says, "His sheet tells me that the one thing that kept tripping him up in his criminal enterprises was a tendency to ill temper. Good thing he didn't pass that on." Isn't though, Raylan says with a wry smile. Mullen's comments illustrate his fears that while Raylan's father's career path has not impacted his son's career path, there is a fear that his "tendency to ill temper" may in fact be genetic rather than behavioral. The slow build to the introduction of Raylan's father serves to create a long form arc in the show but also allows the writers to craft a character onscreen whose masculinity is depicted in opposition to his father's therein reflecting the image of American masculinity as self-made and masochistic.

After the conversation with Mullen, Raylan is assigned to look after a local snitch named Arnold Pinter (David Eigenberg) by one of his younger colleagues. Despite the fact that Raylan has put in 16 years with the marshal's service he is unable to escape the rookie hazing traditions and calmly accepts the assignment.

He meets Pinter a short middle aged man with glasses and a sweet tooth in a local restaurant where the snitch, a fish out of water Brooklyn guy whose quick vocal delivery and cynicism immediately mark him as a "Yankee" amidst a sea of "toothless, banjo playing rednecks" as Pinter labels the locals. He tells Raylan about his past in New York where he worked as a "fixer" a person who helped organized criminals and career criminals solve their problems, but when the level of violence and lack of professionalism amongst the street element changed, Pinter explains he left for rural America and safety. Now he is running a book making and collecting operation and on the side uses his contacts to provide the marshall' s and local law enforcement with tips on criminals.

Pinter tells Raylan about a bad dude who is in town named "Tiny" an African American man who looks like a mountain and that has escaped from police custody on numerous occasions using his size and strength. The misnomer of "Tiny's" name is played for laughs in a later scene when he is arrested by the marshal's at his girlfriend's house where they find him handcuffed to a bed in his underwear with a gag in his mouth. In this moment it is indicated that "Tiny" is a man who likes to engage in kinky sex, but his sexual appetite is his downfall as he is taken into custody.

The image of Pinter as a law abiding citizen is challenged when it is shown how he collects the money owed to him. He uses a thug looking African American who wears tank top, gold chains and gator skin boots to collect and intimidate for him. Pinter sends Curtis to get his money from a local preppy man Travis Travers. Travers is shown to be a man of little means but with a taste for the finery things in life, which he inherited from his dead parents. However, when Curtis threatens to cut off his finger, he convinces Curtis to help him kidnap Pinter so that they can find Pinter's supposed "getaway fund."

The men kidnap Pinter from his home and then bind him to a chair with a black bag over his head an image that is reminiscent of the "war on terror" as is the usage of heavy metal music to disorient Pinter. Curtis's tactics along with Traver's checkered past that includes a child molestation charge show both of these men to be capable of all types of depravities, and in drawing their characters in such a negative light, it also challenges their image of masculinity. In effect, these are bad men because of their unwillingness to productively serve society, for they would rather cut corners, fingers and commit any level of crime to make their lives easier.

Another interesting aspect that the show first began to address headon is a discussion of the current economic downturn. In last week's episode it was a discussion of the soft housing market. In this episode it is the massive budget deficit. Mullen says to Raylan, "You mind telling me with the deficit what it is, why you are so hot to spend Uncle Sam's 20 grand [ a reference to Pinter's reward money]? When Raylan tries to get Pinter his reward money but cannot locate him he tells Mullen that "something is making my neck hair stand up." This simple physiological crime detection method serves him well and also shows him to be a man who is dogged and resilient. These qualities further connect his masculinity to the image of a Western hero. Raylan's cowboy appearance and devotion to justice are compared to other iterations of masculinity in the rest of the episode.

Travers tells Curtis about his run in with Raylan at Pinter's home noting that, "I never seen a Lexington cop dressed like the Marlboro Man. Ain't like it's Dallas." Curtis recognizes that Travers has met the marshall that Pinter told him about earlier. He says, "That Marlboro Man was the marshal that Gary Coopered [ referencing High Noon] some bad ass in Miami a couple of week's ago." Raylan's prowess with a gun and his penchant for Western style serve as his calling card and more importantly position him as an ideal figure of masculinity: iron jawed, resolute, aggressive, and efficient with a firearm as Curtis learns when Raylan shows up with the money at Traver's house.

The two men are framed in a long shot so that the camera is positioned behind Curtis's hand and Raylan is visible in the distance. The scene is designed to recall the images of show downs in classical Hollywood Western films. Curtis says to Raylan coolly, "You that cowboy they used to talk about. You got the hat, the boots, the whole nine." Raylan merely smiles as he recognizes that this man is no simple "gardener" the occupation that Curtis associates with himself. The two men then talk about Western movies and the traits and actions seen in the films. Curtis asks Raylan if he believes that men used to wait and get set and then draw down on one another in the streets like the movies show. Raylan then quickly draws his pistol showing off his skill with the weapon and then ejects the magazine before explaining the nature of his visit.

The episode ends with Raylan recognizing that Pinter has been kidnapped by Travers whom Raylan shoots and kills with two bullets to the chest through a wooden door. Still, Travers has managed to kill Curtis in cold blood and ruin Pinter's sense of happiness when he discovers that Traver's other partner in the plot was Pinter's girlfriend.

Again, the show uses women to make the men feel secure and as sexually duplicitous individuals that men must fear. In fact even when Raylan shows up at Ava's house and explains that he has found a reason to stay in Kentucky a place he has been trying to escape from his whole life, it is indicated that he has compromised his own masculinity. Whether Ava will act as the civilizing force in Raylan's life like so many other women in Western films is still to be determined.